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О ONE LIVES FOREVER 2 | GIFT GUIDE | UNREAL TOURNAMENT 2003
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call 1-800-771-3772
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© 2001 Infogrames Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. Manufactured and marketed by Infogrames, Inc., New York, NY. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Quicksilver Software Inc.
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REE HUNDRED YEARS AFTER THE NEAR- DESTRUCTION
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COMING WINTER 2002
WALD
cgm * issue 145
42 COVER STORY
LUCKY
15
The stunning-looking XIII, plus twelve
others to shoot for in 2003, including:
City of Heroes
Command & Conquer Generals
DOOM III
DX2: Invisible War
Freelancer
Full Throttle 2
Halo
Rise of Nations
Star Wars Galaxies
Star Wars Knights of
the Old Republic
Tron 2.0
World of WarCraft
BY JASON CROSS, CHRIS HUDAK,
KEVIN RICE, AND CINDY YANS
NEWSWIRE
24
25
26
32
66
Sid Meier's Legacy
The question isn't so much whether the
legendary designer will revisit some of the
games of his past. It's merely which ones
will they be
BY ANDREW S. BUB
"Ghosts" of Blizzard
Blizzard announces its next game, StarCraft:
Ghost...for consoles only
BY STEVE BAUMAN
Newsbutes
What Are You Playing?, Top Sellers,
Spotlight, and Offbeat
PREVIEWS
Of Human Bond-age
007: NightFire pays homage to 40 years of
shaken, not stirred, action
BY SUZANNE ASHE
Also Previewed:
All American:
The 82nd Airborne in Normandy . . . .36
HARDWARE
Technicalities
When Will 3D Really Matter?—Gamers
can't live without it, but the mass market
ignores it
BY JASON CROSS
67 Q&A
You have questions, we have answers
68 Going Flat
With prices falling and quality rising, it
might be time to ditch that gigantic tube
monitor and go with stylishly thin LCD
BY JASON CROSS
Reviews:
Track GX odds aires os. rus 76
НОТА COUGAR aie eee eoe onte oe 76
REVIEWS
78 No One Lives Forever 2:
A Spy in H.A.R.M.’s Way
Nobody does it better: Monolith is at
the top of the gaming world with this
superb sequel
BY STEVE BAUMAN
Also Reviewed
America’s! Army. .--.-. ces а 92
Battlefield1942- soi Saat 84
Сеше Кто cs NACE А 94
Dirt Track Racing2.............. 98
Empire Earth: The Art of Conquest . .96
Iirks:2003..:: O SC T ATAS. 96
Майа ss а 90
Medieval: Total War............. 88
Prisoner. ot. W8L-c. АД eme. 94
SpringiBIe8k ze egg 98
Sybériac И. en 86
The hinge СЕНДА ДД. А 92
Unreal Tournament 2003 ......... 82
In 1942, specially trained soldiers were deployed to carry out commando-style missions against
the forces of Japan. They were cold as steel and could strike without warning. Through sweltering
rainforests, sun-baked coral beaches and stinking mangrove swamps, these skilled heroes took
the war to the Japanese. ay s
% | |
Bring the hard-edged intensity of the Pacific The puter. Arm your squad with an
impressive arsenal of weapons for each mi . Expetience t! ry of that 12-man unit, known
only as... The Deadly Dozen™.
A 4A
2002 nFusion Interactive, LLC. All rights reserved. All trademar
5 sai
pa dea
Game
www.cgonline.com
PUBLISHER
Edward Cespedes
BUSINESS DIRECTOR
Ed Mitchell
E cr EDITORIAL EUS SE
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BPA
V
104
18
108
110
AFTERLIFE
102 Out of the Box
Mass Appeal—How to develop a shooter
for the modders... and why you probably 112
shouldn't
BY BRETT TODD
Tous in the Attic
Toys for Bob is revisiting the legendary Star 114
Control Il, and plans on giving it away for free
BY BRETT TODD
THIS MONTH'S DEMO CD
y
TOURNAMENT 2003
Try One of the Year's
Biggest Sequels Today!
Т NO ONE LIVES
FOREVER 2
New 150MB
ree Level Demo
AMERICA'S ARMY
Full 260MB Version
-— New Wallpapers!
DOOM III
TOMB RAIDER
UNREAL computer |
| GHOST RECON "Lad
© and more ' š
PRODUCTS RANGE FROM
) EVERYONE vo MATURE
E-M |
== Еа
DEPARTMENTS
Upfront
Adult's Only—Gaming on the road to
immaturity
BY STEVE BAUMAN
Rebound
Understanding satire, loving BioWare,
Britney Spears... these are our readers
Road to Nowhere
Ode on a franchise burn—Attempting to
transcend the constraints of a medium
BY CINDY YANS
Inside the Sausage Factory
Come on in, the water's fine...—(And you
don't even have to quit your day job...)
BY PHIL STEINMEYER
Three Finger Salute
Battlefield 2003—Reality has left the building
BY TOM CHICK
Big Time
Sequel
Try out Unreal Tournament 2003
before you buy. It comes with a
couple of game types, a couple of
maps, a couple of models... but lots
of entertainment.
Also this month:
No One Lives Forever 2
America's Army
Madden NFL 2003
NHL 2003
Plus wallpapers from DOOM III,
Tomb Raider, Ghost Recon, and
more.
INSTRUCTIONS: The disc should autoplay once placed in your CD-ROM. If it does not, double-click on
CGCD.EXE to launch the interface. If you have a defective CD-ROM, a replacement can be obtained by
sending the original to: Computer Games, ATTN: CD Replacement, 63 Millet St. Richmond, VT 05477.
Alter E э
ر Disaster!
P "Best PC Game, | |
ECTS 2001" ||
For more information on this
product's rating
call 1-800-771- ип.
or visit the ESRB website ШКЕ
h Jiwww.esrb.or. В
n: 3 WWW. pRoject-Nomads.com 2002 CDV Software Entertainment AG. All rights reserved. Subject to change
LIVE THE LEGEND...
E d. & \
СУНА
У,
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4
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VUA yup, mm
ШУЙ,
Fun and dynamic gameplay
Use cunning or might to complete missions
Play as Robin Hood, Little John, Maid Marian and others
Stunning graphics and realistic atmospheric conditions
THE LEGEND _
OF SHERWOOD
©2002 Wanadoo Edition. All rights reserved. Co-published by Strategy First Inc Violence
and Wanadoo Edition. Created by Spellbound Studios
Strategy First
E HT л, 3 5 -
$a QUAE ы E
Take on the role of the legendary nobleman,
Robin Hood or one of his Merry Men and
play over 30 different missions that combine
action and adventure with stealth tactical
elements as you battle for control of the
King's throne in the stunning, lush
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Н took God seven days to create the world.
But it only takes an hour to conquer il.
"They make you wonder how "There should be no reason "We loved Civilization П, and
you xwere able to play tbe game for any Civilization III Play the World promises to give
before the expansion." owner, both casual and the classic world-builder a
"..1ts an addictive addition." hardcore, to not pick up whole new dimension."
the expansion..."
- Computer Gaming World - UGO - PC Gamer
©2002 Infogrames Interactive, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Manufactured and marketed by Infogrames, Inc., New York, NY. Ай trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Sid Meier's Civilization®, Civ®,
and Civilization are U.S. registered trademarks. Firaxis Games is a trademark of Firaxis Games, Inc. GameSpy and the "Powered by GameSpy" design are trademarks of GameSpy Industries, Inc. All rights reserved.
ND
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INFOGRAMES
Become the ultimate creator with Civilization" III: Play tbe World." This multiplayer expansion pack transforms
Civ?III into an intense online challenge that allows you to go head-to-head with anyone you choose via the internet,
e-mail, hot seat or LAN. You can also play a game in under an hour, so whenever you have some time, you can sit
down and conquer the world. And with more civilizations, leaders and an enhanced scenario builder, your options
for playing god are virtually limitless. Pay a visit to civ3.com to find out just how powerful you can be.
€
El Violence © (( 0
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A os FIRAXÍS INFOGRANES J Og:
STEVE BAUMAN
18
adults only
Gaming on the road to immaturity
Does your idea of a “mature” game include dogs having sex and/or
public urination? It does if you're Acclaim, whose BMX XXX is the
self-appointed poster boy for the “maturation of the game industry,”
to use the words of its spokesperson in an article on CNN.com. Of
course it’s hard not to wonder if this is a marketing stunt or some
kind of desperate cry for attention since we’re talking about a compa-
ny that managed to get someone to name their newborn child
“Turok” for a year and advertised Shadow Man 2 on tombstones.
What makes BMX XXX “mature” are the following features, taken
from its website: “Live strippers, pimps, ho’s, and enough dog doo to
make you piss your pants.” IGN.com perhaps best sums up the game,
and their editorial style, saying, “You will see boobies.”
All of you out there that have never seen “boobies” before, raise
your hand, or some other representative part of your anatomy! Since
it’s fair to say a large majority of readers—and at least 99.9% of our
woman readers—can answer yes to the above question, how does
this represent the “maturation of the industry?” That’s like saying
American Pie is more “mature” than Signs because, you know, a
Acclaim is correct, its existence and accep-
tance in games is a sign of maturation. The
appearance of more adult themes in games
is inevitable, but the baby steps will, as
always, be slightly less than subtle.
There’s room for everything in gaming,
including something like BMX XXX. To say
otherwise is to ignore the existence of, say,
Tom Green. Hollywood understands this.
Some people only watch movies like
Requiem for a Dream, while others only
watch There’s Something About Mary.
There’s nothing wrong those looking for
“serious” entertainment or “non-serious”
entertainment. Both may be “serious”
about their interests. As\ with most filmgo-
ers, I bounce back and forth between
extremes, though I know I'd rather watch
someone have sex with a pastry in
American Pie a thousand times than be
forced to suffer through more of Tom
Cruise acting tormented in Eyes Wide Shut.
The difference between Hollywood and
4$ In adding more adult themes, whether they're sexual or not, it's
time for some games to add more shades of gray, to at least try to
show some consequence for your actions, some subtext,
or some additional meaning. FF
chick gets naked in it, and there's a sex scene with pastry.
Yet BMX XXX gets publicity, alongside games like the T&A fest
Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball, as an example of how games
are growing up. C'mon, people can do better than this. These are
adolescent, "Wouldn't it be cool if..." designs, and they're probably
considerably cooler if you hadn't seen actual boobies yet.
Making these claims even more dubious is realizing that the
themes covered in your average Final Fantasy game are considerably
more "mature" than polygonal T&A. And that doesn't even take into
account games like Planescape Torment, Deus Ex, or any Ultima
game. What about the sharp and sophisticated humor in No One Lives
Forever 2 [see page 78]? Even Max Payne tried to give some deeper
meaning and resonance to its semi-random acts of wanton violence.
But we're talking about sex here, and as everyone's always quick
to say, "Sex sells." That's not entirely true; it draws attention, but
that sort of notoriety doesn't necessarily lead to sales. $50 games
aren't impulse purchases like the latest edition of Maxim, and due to
the repetitive nature of videogames, sex appeal alone isn't enough to
sustain a game. Gameplay, again, wins out.
Sex will always find its way into games, just as it did back when
Sierra's Leisure Suit Larry was called Softporn Adventure, and Cobra
Mission emerged from the land of the rising nipple in the early “905.
And there's nothing wrong with this. In fact, the spokesperson for
CGM | DECEMBER 2002
gaming, at least at this stage, is you can
enjoy many films on multiple levels. Most
games are only enjoyable on a purely viscer-
al level. Few raise issues beyond, "The evil
guy is doing something really bad. He's irre-
deemably evil, and you must kill him and
thousands of other irredeemably evil peo-
ple." In adding more adult themes, whether
they're sexual or not, it's time for some
games to add more shades of gray, to at
least try to show some consequence for your
actions, some subtext, or some additional
meaning. Moreover, as long as you're not
dogmatic, none of this negatively affects the
player interested only in "entertainment." e
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Violence E : \ DUE" рине
WN
ANNIVERSARY
ACTIVISION.
TM, ®, & © 2002 Paramount Pictures. All rights reserved. Star Trek and related marks are trademarks of Paramount Pictures. Game собе © 2002 Activision, inc. and its affiliates. All rights reserved. Published and distributed by Activision Publishing Inc. Activision act ivision.com
is a registered trademark of Activision, Inc. and its affiliates. Developed by Taldren. The ratings icon is a registered trademark of the Interactive Digital Software Association. All other trademarks and trade names are the properties of their respective owners.
\
PLA YER! SIONS \
TS AND TRAPS
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-STUNNING IC Al & GRAPHICS
- COOPERATIVE MULTIPLAYER ONLINE MISSIONS
$
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Sequel to the award-winning 2000 Action Game of the Year.*
MATURE
Blood
£ SIERRA NOLF2.SIERRA.COM | MONOLITH | Violence
CONTENT RATED BY
ESRB
› 2002 Monolith Productions. Inc. All rights reserved. Fox Interactive, No One Lives Forever and their associated logos are registered trademarks or trademarks of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, © 2002 Twentieth Century Fox Film
Corporation. Monolith and A Spy in H.A.R.M.'S Way are trademarks of Monolith Productions, Inc. Sierra and the Sierra logo are trademarks of Sierra Entertainment, Inc. NVIDIA, the NVIDIA Logo, NVIDIA The Way It's Meant to be Played Logo and
other NVIDIA Marks are trademarks of NVIDIA Corporation in the United States and other countries. The ratings icon is a trademark of the Interactive Digital Software Association. “Computer Games Magazine, PC Gamer, Computer Gaming World
—YOU HAVE 60 SECOND
421
PL.
— m ү
sess Sio Rn
cw фм
You'll need gadgets, lots of gadgets,
30 \ - gadgets to master the art of becoming
bb Г ш invisible, infrared goggles to start, maybe
pb" a a grappling hook
"
Violence
Suggestive Themes
©2002 Electronic Arts Inc. Electronic Arts, EA GAMES, the EA Games logo and Challenge Everything are trademarks or registered trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. All rights reserved. NIGHTFIRE Interactive.Game (certain
James Bond related properties © 1962-2002 Danjaq, LLC, and United Artists Corporation. NIGHTFIRE is a trademark of Danjaq, LLC, and United Artists Corporation. GameSpy Arcade is © 1994-2002 GameSpy Industries, Ltd. The GameSpy logo and "GameSpy"
tick a laser camera, tock and magnets tick all to help
you obtain secret documents tock and then scale the walls
of a large international organization 60 stories above Tokyo,
tick or defend yourself from sniper fire high above
the alps tock while dodging bullets from tick would
be jungle assassins all in time to tock get the girl
but don't pat yourself on the back yet tick because that Sixty seconds of Bond's world.
was only one minute tock and there are still 1,400 left in the It’s more than most people
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Bond related trademarks TM Danjaq, LLC. James Bond, 007, James Bond Gun and Iris Logos and all other
tronic Arts™ brand.
NEWSWIRE
issue 145 • december 2002
The question isn't so
much whether the
legendary designer will
revisit some of the games
of his past.
It's merely which ones
will they be.
by Andrew S. Bub
Sid Meier's Sid Meier!
24
Sid Meier is easily one of the
most respected game designers
in the business. To many, his
name is synonymous with qual-
ity gaming, and few designers
have covered more genres for
as many years. He was a found-
ing member of MicroProse and
left to form Firaxis shortly
before that company was tossed
around between Hasbro and Infogrames. Meier and com-
pany partnered with the latter to bring Sid Meier's
Civilization III to store shelves, bringing Meier and his
original creation full circle.
While this was an interesting turn of events, it was
made even more interesting after Meier teased an audi-
ence at Gen Con 2002 in Milwaukee, saying, "Since
Civilization III was such a success, we've given a lot of
thought to remaking some of my other games." He then
asked the crowd what games it would like to see.
Many told him they want a remake of Meier's leg-
endary action/role-playing/strategy hybrid Pirates, but
Meier only nodded and allowed that the game would
look good with today's technology. He mentioned
Colonization as a possibility, as well as his offbeat spy
game Covert Action, but the crowd showed little interest
in those titles. *How about Gettysburg?" shouted some
wargame fan. Sid smiled and admitted, "I'd love to revis-
CGM | DECEMBER 2002
it Gettysburg,
but those are Firaxis
games, we already have the
rights to it and Alpha Centauri." Then
Meier tantalizingly remarked "Our deal with
Infogrames gives us access to the entire MicroProse cata-
log, so we have a lot of choices," then mentioned Master
of Magic and X-COM. The crowd began peppering him
with questions and other suggestions.
For fans of any of those games, it's hard not to be
interested in a modern day remake, or any of Meier's
various tank, flight, or submarine games. What would a
designer like Meier bring to games like X-COM or Master
of Magic? Both games are seen as classics that easily
rival the best of his own oeuvre.
So what will the legacy game be? Meier said he's very
interested in Master of Magic and X-COM. “We get a lot
of requests for Pirates," he said with a smile, and when
asked about the submarine sim Silent Service he said,
"That and Red Storm Rising would be interesting to
remake." When asked about Railroad Tycoon, he men-
tioned only that he liked PopTop's sequel and felt no
need to revisit that license.
After the event, Firaxis backtracked somewhat, saying
the company hasn’t actually secured any rights to old
MicroProse games from Infogrames. “Sid Meier was
probably being optimistic when he mentioned that,”
explained Firaxis’ PR Director Kathy Gilmore, saying the
company is negotiating for licenses but there was noth-
ing she could specifically reveal. "I've been told we're
negotiating for Sid's legacy titles," she said, but not
the games Meier didn't design (like X-COM and
Master of Magic). She could not deny, however,
that other "non-Sid" titles might be included given
what Meier said at Gen Con. She also said that the
licenses were being negotiated one at a time and not
in a lump settlement, adding that she was very opti-
mistic about how the negotiations were proceeding.
She confirmed that Firaxis plans to announce the next
Sid Meier game soon after Civilization III: Play the World
is released in late October, but couldn't guarantee that
the announcement would have anything to do with
MicroProse legacy titles.
Interestingly, Firaxis recently licensed the Netimmerse
game engine, a 3D engine used to power games as You take on the role of Nova, a lethal Ghost operative... or at least you will
diverse as Star Trek Bridge Commander and Freedom on your console.
Force. Of course, the new engine could be for some new
non-MicroProse related title. Meier only admitted that
3D has come a long way. “Games like Warcraft III and "Ghosts" of Blizza rd
Age of Mythology prove you can use the technology
without sacrificing detail," he said. Blizzard announces a new StarCraft ...
Meier is notorious for extensive research, but when
asked what he's been reading lately, he only smiled and for consoles only
declined to comment, avoiding the bait. Then his family by Steve Bauman
arrived and escorted him onto the show floor leaving us
all to wonder about the next Sid Meier game, and what On September 20th at the Tokyo Gameshow, Blizzard announced its
Firaxis has planned for MicroProse's legacy. next game, StarCraft: Ghost. Unfortunately, PC gamers interested in a
Special thanks to www.mobygames.com for the use of 3D, third-person, Metal Gear Solid-styled romp through a familiar
its scans of the old MicroProse games. e gaming universe will need a console to play it; it's for multiple *next-
generation" platforms only. Co-developed by Blizzard and Nihilistic
Software (Vampire: The
Masquerade), it's scheduled
^ for release in late 2003.
Se pa ra ted at Bi rth ? "We're very excited about
returning to the StarCraft
If you thought Hamid Karzai looked familiar, you were right. Behold the disturbing series," said Mike Morhaime,
similarity between the Afghani President and Bruno Lawrie from No One Lives pic ieee ie
$ dent and co-founder in the
Forever. (With thanks to Jason McCullough) press release, pointing out that
the company's roots are in
console, not PC gaming (the
developer's first games includ-
ed Rock N' Roll Racing and
The Lost Vikings for the
SNES).
In other Blizzard console
news, the company announced
they would bring The Lost
Vikings to the GameBoy
Advance. e
WWW.CGONLINE.COM 25
NEWSBYTES »
26
WHAT ARE YOU PLAYING?
Brenda Braithwaite
Lead Designer, MicroProse
"Dungeons & Dragons Heroes. l'm either working on it or playing it. It's
really coming together now, and it's a blast to play with four players. As if |
don't get enough at work, | play traditional D&D once a month, too, with
some people from Infogrames Hunt Valley (formerly MicroProse) and a pro-
grammer from Firaxis. | have Meverwinter Nights, but | have to wait until
we hit alpha before | open it otherwise, I'll get no sleep at all. My favorite
game, of course, which | play night and day is SimDiaper and RealMom
with my 19-month old daughter, Maezza."
Jason Hall
C.E.0., Monolith Productions
"Aside from Vo One Lives Forever 2, | have been playing and quite thor-
oughly enjoying WarCraft III on Battle.net. | have set
up a special ‘strategy
practice’ account and have been using it to try almost every single funda-
mental strategy that | can think of. By ‘fundamental,’
| mean a generalized
theme that | can successfully use consistently throughout the game.”
Play
Mare
Games for a Living
Get in the Game! Careers in the Game Industry
by Marc Mencher
New Riders [www.newriders.com], $29.95
Mencher wants to tell you how to get a job. Before
founding a game recruiting firm (Game Recruiter), he
worked for Spectrum Holobyte, MicroProse, and 3D0,
and later as a board member of the International Game
Developers Network. He created his book to assist you
in obtaining a job in the game industry. It includes
information from over a dozen folks in the industry
telling you how to meet people and dupe them into
hiring you, or alternately how to acquire the skills
Poker goes Tetri
5 Card Dash $19.99
Any fan of Tetris-style gameplay will want to take a
look at this game from CogniToy, creators of the
intricate strategy game, Mind Rover. This excep-
tionally addicting product challenges you to create
poker hands from randomly falling tiles, as you fight
for high score. There is a mind-boggling race
against the clock, an un-timed puzzle mode, and a
freelance practice mode.
While it might seem straightforward, bonus
cards, special action cards, wild cards, and cards
that “eat” the currently falling card (Chomp cards)
CGM | DECEMBER 2002
that properly “sell” yourself based on your merits and
background. It covers creating demos, handling
interviews, negotiating salaries and Mountain Dew
allowances, while discussing specific careers in
game design, programming, art, and production.
all bring a much more
strategic element to the
game. Gameplay is level-
based, each level requiring
you to complete certain
combinations of hands, and
beware, you may find your-
self falling victim to the lit-
tle voice that urges “just
one more hand...” The
game is shareware, and
you can download a demo
at www.cognitoy.com.
TOP SELLERS
WARCRAFT Ill:
1 REIGN OF CHAOS
Blizzard Entertainment
Rating жж жж
тиса
THE SIMS: VACATION
Electronic Arts
Rating Xk Xk
| EMEN SEHR
THE SIMS
3 Electronic Arts
Rating жж жж;
MADDEN NFL 2003
4 EA Sports |
Rating Xxx
NEVERWINTER NIGHTS
Infogrames
Rating Жжжж жж
BACKYARD BASEBALL 2005 |
Infogrames
Not Rated
[lorte Ig eu
MEDAL OF HONOR:
7 ALLIED ASSAULT
Electronic Arts
Rating жж xk
اا
EEA SRE
THE SIMS: HOT DATE
Electronic Arts
Rating xxx 'Z
GRAND THEFT AUTO III
Rockstar |
Rating жж XxX |
.
MEDIEVAL: TOTAL WAR
1 0 Activision
Ў Rating xxx
11. Zoo Tycoon; 12. The Sims Livin' Large;
13. RollerCoaster Tycoon; 14. RollerCoaster
Tycoon Gold; 15. Diablo Il Expansion Set: Lord
of Destruction; 16. The Sims House Party;
17. StarCraft: Battle Chest; 18. Age of Empires
Il: Age of Kings; 19. Harry Potter & The —
Sorcerer's Stone; 20. Icewind Dale II E
Source: NPD INTELECT® Market Tracking. The December listis
based on units sold by forty-two retail chains, representing more
than 80% of the U.S. market. Meena
HHEWE
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makes grand gesture.
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EVERYONE
Visit www.esrb.org or
call 1-800-771-3772
for Rating Information.
E2002 Electronic Arig inc. SimCity, The Sims, Бебзопіс Arts, EA GAMES, ЁЁ EA GAMES logo and Challeage Everything are trademarks fr registered trademarks Ей Arts Inc. in the U Sfänd/or othe tries. All sights reserved. All other Рзин йесі, are the property of thelf respective owners. EA GAME an Electronic At Grand.
15 Limo tt Your Sims /
Place yoursimsinyour city,
to getthe inside'scoop on
Whats going on around town
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Feel the rhythm of the city: )
peaceful protests and rowdy riots, |
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ity of your dreams. Immerse yourself in the lives of your Sims.
Challenge Everything
“the game looks amazing — the explosions, detonations,
and other effects are spectacular."
—Computer Games—
| (^Y
CIneas sure ۰.
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“it’s a swashbuckling good time.”
—Computer Gaming World—
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more than-accommodate even the most xs
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007: NightFire pays homage to 40 years of Shaken, b
but not stirred, action
by Suzanne Ashe
After a number of
demonstrations of James
Bond 007: NightFire
where Electronic Arts
didn’t allow anyone to
actually play the game,
it’s hard not to get antsy
while the game’s pro-
ducer, Michael Condrey,
runs through three lev-
els before turning over the controls. You control Bond as he starts off
high in the Austrian Alps where he needs to penetrate a castle and
collect data about a Nuke Lord named Drake. After you jump from a
bomber and land near the target, you need to stowaway on a trans-
port to get behind the stone walls—don’t fret, however, there are
other ways in, including a shooting out some searchlights and pick-
ing a lock. Although ammo is plentiful, it’s never a problem to pluck
more from an enemy’s corpse. There are a few goodies, though,
which are in short supply and warrant some careful handling, one of
which is a mini turret gun in a briefcase. Toss this baby into the fray
to lay down some ground cover while Bond scurries away.
After gathering pertinent intel, Bond makes his way to Tokyo
where he sneaks past several civilian guards and gains access to more
sensitive material. No use going in all Chow Yun Fat (the powers that
be nicked the double-fisted pistol action that the developers threw in
as added firepower). Here, a lighter touch is required. Dialing up the
menu of gadgets he has at his disposal—a key chain/stunner, a ciga-
| [above] Storm troopers below! >>> That batch of cleavage does
| warrant sunglasses removal.
CGM | DECEMBER 2002
rette lighter/camera, and a fountain
pen/dart gun, and a PDA/decoder—Bond
can effectively disarm the guards, disable
the alarm system and take over the control
room in about the time it takes the average
bartender to shake a chilled cocktail.
"These guards are sneaky,” says
Condrey. "They'll hide behind one-way
mirrors, duck behind objects, kick back
grenades, and do just about anything to
take Bond out." He suggests that setting up
hot keys before hand will aid in accessing
each device.
After disabling key areas of the techno
terrorists regime, you jet off to the South
Pacific where you dive headfirst into more
trouble. At Drake's offshore lair of evil you
are able to crack a code and plan the next
move. After swimming through the treach-
erous South Pacific Sea, you next blast off
to an orbiting Space Station where you go
toe to toe with villains in space suits and jet
packs. Other levels include infiltrating Fort
Knox and schmoozing in a high rolling casi-
no. Enemies and allies are plentiful on each
level, as are weapons. Some guns are even
stashed in secret areas. One such cache of
goods can be found behind a bookcase
Harry Potter-style. You can get to them by
ШШ
< PREVIEWS
"Do you read me, Chief? How
about you, 99?" »»» [below] Able
to scale tall buildings in a million
awkward steps.
pushing the right tomes, until the bookcase Job to Pussy Galore.
rolls back revealing the vault behind. All in all, it appears there is plen-
You can easily shift the camera angle ty of action to accompany this inter-
around to take advantage of the massive active tribute to the Bond films,
levels and intricate architecture. The view which celebrate their 40th anniver-
can even track Bond from a distance, as in sary this year. NightFire will debut
the case of the character inching across a this winter during the same time-
high wire. From this view players get a frame as the motion picture release
clear, yet somewhat unsettling, shot of of Die Another Day. And if
actor Pierce Brosnan's face. Indoors and at Electronic Arts and developer Gearbox Software have anything to say
night players can pullout the infrared gog- about it, NightFire will intrigue you enough to Play Another Night. e
gles, to peer behind a rice paper wall, or
perhaps just to scan a potential date with
the aid of x-ray lenses. And no secret
agent's life would be complete without the
crack support team of the perpetually irri-
tated Q, M, and Miss Moneypenny.
Although the game has all the flavor a
Bond feature film, including the Aston
Martin, there is no way to drive the car—
it's all done in cut scenes (the console ver-
sion of the game, developed by Eurocom,
offers seamless driving play). Instead, the
PC game offers online multiplayer levels.
Here players can take on the persona of
number of Bond allies or enemies in “cap-
ture the flag," or “Good” vs. “Evil.” Players
can assume the identities of Zoe (from
Agent Under Fire), or anyone from Odd
Bond takes on
three laser-
equipped gunmen
with his Vil old
pistol.
WWW.CGONLINE.COM 33
SUGGESTIVE THEMES SONY ONLINE
» ENTERTAINMENT
Я nk : p k bs , si fe ў 2 1 б, ^ жу "а
BLOOD & GORE Å -q І < ен
VIOLENCE = CD
ESR
^ All Whi Challélt&e Me
SHall Feel My
Vengeance айа Find Shall
Rdir FIOM the Sky.”
Solusek Ro, The Burning Prince
ehold the portals. Journey to the throne rooms of
the Gods of Norrath and challenge them to battle.
In the Planes of Power lost treasures, mighty challenges,
and adventures unknown await the hearty and brave.
Classic version of EverQuest included
18 new zones for experienced players
New translocation zone specifically linking all cities
Hundreds of new and powerful weapons, spells, armor, & jewelry
Over 50 new creatures to combat including -
Rallos Zek the God of War, Bertoxxulous the God of Disease,
Saryrn Goddess of Torment, and more
Dozens of enhanced quests for experienced and
non-experienced players alike
Also look for the
: gore official EverQuest Atlas,
] a complete and detailed
collection of all the maps
of Norrath.
EverQuest is a registered trademark and The Planes of Power is a trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. SOE and; SOE logo are trademarks of Sony Online. Entertainment Inc.
© 2002 Sony Online Entertainment Inc.; portions © 2002 Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. All rights reserved.
There will be a game based on Quentin Tarantino's
upcoming Kill Bill. The movie stars Uma Thurman as an
assassin who swears revenge on her former master and his
Squad of international assassins. [Black Label Games]
DS е ел
Lord of the Rings Е СКС
Expect even more Lord of the Rings games down the
road, including Middle Earth Online, The War of the Ring
(a real-time strategy game) and games based on The Two
Towers and The Return of the King. [Vivendi Universal)
6; : E ASIUME
|
EL.
American Conquest Ls AA
Due in mid 2003, this real-time strategy game gives you
control of one of 12 different nations in the Americas.
Multiple campaigns and missions will bring you more
than 300 years of armed conflict from 1492 to 1813. [CDV]
IL-2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles
This expansion for the superb flight simulator adds 30
new missions, 27 new flyable aircraft, and a dynamic
campaign. [UbiSoft]
Invasion from the Skies
All American: The 82nd Airborne in Normandy
promises up close and personal wargaming
by Jeff Lackey
All American: The 82nd Airborne in Normandy hopes to build on the venera-
ble tradition of turn based, squad level, tactical PC games (think X-COM and
Jagged Alliance 2) with its realistic depiction of small unit actions in WWII's
Normandy invasion. Its predecessor, 101: The Airborne Invasion of Normandy,
was praised for its depth and authenticity. Designer Tim Brooks’ goal is to
retain all of the features that players enjoyed in that game and improve on the
few areas that gave cause for complaint.
Like its predecessor, it presents you with a large roster of individual soldiers
of varying ranks, personalities, and skills from which you must assemble and
equip a squad. Reaching the battlefield will be half the battle: as is historically
accurate, the transport plane may be hit by flak, paratroopers may be wound-
ed, separated from their squadron, or fail to survive the jump. Thus the first
task will be to reassemble the squad and then attempt to ascertain, from the
game maps, where the team has been dropped relative to the mission objec-
tives. The game then simulates the encounters and battles a WWII small unit
might face as it strives to accomplish the missions. The plan is for the missions
to present enough variability to allow the campaigns to be replayed without
becoming predictable.
As with many wargames, it’s attempting to appeal to grognards and casual
gamers alike, allowing the hardcore to control minute details such as weapons
selection while permitting novices to automate these choices. Improvements
include new art, more varied missions (including street fighting,) improved AI
behavior, and more weapons effects. One common complaint about 101 was
the slow soldier movement; designer Brooks says this has been addressed, and
the crippled “group move” function fixed.
At this point of development, The 82nd Airborne in Normandy appears to be a
nice upgrade to 101, maintaining it’s strengths and fundamental gameplay while
improving on the primary flaws. It should be available by the end of 2002. e
[above] As in the real
event, the odds of
your paradrop going
as planned is quite
low. >>> [left] АЦ
American will intro-
duce the option of
allowing enemy sol-
diers to surrender
(and perhaps provid- what a ae fita. Ж werk.
ing vitat information). Lo set лу фин :
herd, We have been шашы it r the last 3 day
such am y time here- half of
GREAT LEADERS
RESOLVE CONFLICT
کے e £e س س س اک ee ee ے سے TERUR.
ТІНЕ UNITED NATIONS
ISECuAIPY COUNCIL:
į Established in Geneva (1945), this
! center for diplomacy. and the peaceful
¦ settlement of international disputes
i has had a spotty record. In times of
! global crisis, the United Nation does
{ their best to prevent armed conflict. All
Î too often, however, it is not enough.
x га . Seen >
4
2
By PETER CROSBY
ecent military aggressions around the globe have many
nation’s worried. Between the United States, China and
the Global Liberation Army, tensions run high. Their leaders profess
no interest in escalating the situation, but words ring hollow when
satellite photos tell a different story. The issue is no longer “Will
there be military conflict?” but instead, “Who will prevail?”
ORDS LIKE:
ONTHE BRINK
OP ARMAGEDDON:
Depite their inferior military resources,
the GLA still poses a real threat to
worldwide security.
military resources
International support for
military action 15 minimal at best.
Aggression by either
China or the US will be
unanimously and publicly
derided by the global
community.
Not surprisingly,
most countries still
contend that
non-violent embargos,
boycotts and interna-
tional pressure are more
effective than violence.
Visit www.esrb.org or
call 1-800-771-3772
for Rating Information.
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UNITED STATE
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Despite the difference in resources, all three forces
achieve an eerie kind of parity. The GLA's low-tech-
approach is no less effective than either China's
superior forces or America's advanced technologies.
Challenge Everything
Triskaidekaphobia. Now there's a wordy
don't hear every day. Strictly, the моҝ ге
the unreasonable fear of the nuniber33—
prime number, a Fibonacci number—it do
get scarier than that. Unless you count W
Craven's masked mass-murderer; or Kevi
Bacon, who died in the first Friday the 13
and has been dying in films ever since. T
word comes from the Greek, from tris, m
"three", kai, meaning “апа”, deka, meani
“ten” (mathematicians may confirm that
“three” and “ten” make thirteen), and ph
meaning “fear” or “flight”.
In the 1980s, writer Jean Van Hamme a
illustrator William Vance collaborated on
Belgian comic book Х///. UbiSoft jumped
franchise, so you can now expect a swee
edged shooter that takes the triskai-Gree
adds Belgian, a touch of French-Canadia
American, and serves it up warm. Okay, it
hardly Craven-esque, but you can still ex
an adventuresome and gripping story with
few holes, most created by your arsenal.
is a peek at its innards, and just for the
triskaidekaphobic amongst you, here’s t
of its buddies that serve as some of the
anticipated games of 2003.
The stunning-looking
XIII, plus twelve
others to watch
for in 2003
by Jason Cross, Chris Hudak,
Kevin Rice, and Cindy Yans
All niche comics make great games 6р0 best-
sellers. Isn't that a given? Of course natgpublishems with
“best-seller” dollar signs in their eyes generaly want to т Ке
games for Everyman. Why, then, did ОЪ Ө OP O nêkê ù
shooter adaptation of Jean Van Hamme's {ЙИ ВЕ АНОНС
series, XIII?
Because tiny is relative. Found only in FENG TEKE
nations from Seychelles to Burkina Faso— Well EYBE hot all
French speaking nations—the XIII comics рау Ы іопѕ
of copies. That's not so “tiny” after all. The galê E Mique in
its look and tone, and it will be focused ЗИ ИШЕ ыу
for each of its release platforms, ФА ВЕРО ОЕ the
heaviest because of its strength а ИЙ Ее шаан
So why did they make it? Beca HEY опена
would be, in a word, “cool.”
The character you play is XIII. You аг апер оиа
beach with the Roman numerals tattggedion vour clavicle:
but with little else tattooed in у БАШ Amnesia a pioi
device found in works from Pi@i@seape fonment to КОБЕН
Ludlum's The Bourne Identity ма Speaking OF Bourne, tet s
see... a man dragged from the Meditemanean ais appearance
altered, amnesia...certainly тап Ж ave kened ХШ йе
Ludlum Bourne books. But Van НАШЕ НА EE, indi-
cating that his alcoholic doctor сһага е Е ОШУ element
similarly contained in the Ludlum work, and а the rest of
his ideas differ radically from those in the book.
Your mission is to find out who you really are and why all
these people are trying to kill you. “You don't know who you
are when you start, but then you discover who you think уа
are, but then, in fact, it turns out you're not that рег5@
you're somebody else pretending to be that person fof SET
son," explams
brand та е
John Согһ!@
In fact, you ES
secret govern-
ment agent who
is part of an
organization thaf
is linked to a presidential assassination. So you think you aa
XIII, but actually you are that government agent pretending to
be XIII. The super duper FBI doesn't know this, however, and
is pursuing you for your role in the assassination. The other
Roman numeral people (and there are nineteen more of them,
from I to XX) also still think you are XIII, but now they have
their own vendetta against you. Have no fear, as a General
and an undercover super duper government group that know
who you actually are, and they are there to help you.
WWW.CGONLINE.COM 435
ENTER THE TRAILER PARK SWEEPSTAKES AT WWW.J ALECO.COM
y'all comin
over to the party?
You're in charge of your own double wide empire with Trailer Park Tycoon. Your new neighbors are a bunch
of crazy characters like fishing guy, gothic girl and mullet dude. And they're all looking for a cheap and easy
place to live. Dodge tornados and alien abductions as you create the perfect setting for your new tenants.
Build a laundromat, open a shooting range or plant some pink flamingos in the front yard - it's all up to you.
Soon you'll be kickin' back in your barcalounger downing cold ones and collecting cash.
EVERYONE
2002 Jaleco Entertainment, Inc. All rights reserved. Jaleco Entertainment, Jaleco Entertainment logo and Trailer Park Tycoon and the Trailer Park Tycoon
logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Jaleco Entertainment Inc. in the United States and other countries.
INTENT RATED BY
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J ENTERTAINMENT
lucky 49
Major Jones, an Air Force officer who can pilot various military aircraft, is part of this cor-
rectly informed group. She tries to help you discover the truth about your identity and about
the assassination. “To describe her role we can say that she’s a kind of ‘guardian angel’ for
ХШ,” executive producer Julian Bares says. “For instance, she will help you to escape from
certain places where you are outnumbered by enemies, or from bases where you're
jailed...Other times, she will give you concrete instructions on the objectives of your mis-
sions—go destroy this, steal these documents, etc."
Your amnesia abates slowly throughout the game, and your moments of recall are illus-
trated in flashback sequences. Unlike cutscene flashbacks, these sequences will allow you to
move around and interact within them. You can disregard their complexity and return to the
shooter at hand, or you can linger a bit and get a clearer picture of the backstory. And
they're all stylized with a kind of glow around the characters that differentiates these
moments from "real" time.
If you ask around about this game, probably the first thing people acknowledge in recog-
nition is, *Oh, yeah. That's that French thing with the cel shaded graphics." Cel shading is
the art of rendering objects to give them a “cartoon-y” effect. In a nutshell, it is a way of
lighting 3D models. The models are rendered just the way they would normally be, but the
artists use only one or two colors on the surface, so instead of all of the nuances of realism,
you get solid colors and an object that looks hand drawn, like the “cels” of old cartoons.
Cel Shading has not been as popular on the PC as it has in many console games, and
while Jet Grind Radio, Sly Cooper, and Auto Modellista have wholly embraced it, XIII is the
first PC shooter to use this technique. What is interesting is that, in this case, UbiSoft has
moved away from the trend we have seen ever since 3D became de rigeur for shooters,
namely that designers strived harder and harder to make them more photorealistic. Although
a departure, this style is extremely compelling in a first person shooter, from its visual comic
book appeal to its onomatopoeia. Bam! Zowie! Boom! and many other interjections pepper
the combat scenes and a persistent audiovisual "Tap tap tap" effect indicates that something
sinister is likely going on around that corner or behind that door.
Although XIII is not innovative in its inclusion of somewhat more “refined” gameplay
than the DOOM-like Quakedom preferred by some (it's more about stealth and the mastery
of a few weapons than about dragging out the Big Guns), it still rounds out the experience
with a few tricks. There is cooperative gameplay in which scripted missions involve work-
ing with the NPCs to your advantage. "The dynamic AI gives NPCs the capacity to evaluate
if he needs to help, to run, or to cover XIII,” explains Bares. “For example, in one level,
ENTER
THE
Trai
Park
Tycoon
KING OF THE
PARK
SWEEPSTAKES
j;
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„THRONE!
TO ENTER GO TO
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J ENTERTAINMENT
46
AAA
players will cover the NPC, Major Jones, as she runs across
a roof littered with gangsters. When you successfully get
her across, she will in turn cover you. Like any character
of the game, the AI will go through some routines and eval-
uation to dynamically adapt itself to the player's decisions
and movements." ;
As with Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell, you'll be able to drag
your enemies in front of you and use them as human shields.
To do so, you need to sneak up behind one and grab him by
the neck. And after he has served his purpose, or if he has
begun to hum Country-Western music, you'll be able to dis-
pose of him by handily breaking his neck and dropping him
on the ground.
You're not Bond, and you're not McGuyver. Instead, mas-
command & conquer
even more clones than, say, Myst. In its latest iteratfén, Generals,
tering things like knives and crossbows becomes important,
as does finding weapons in the environment. If you don't
have a gun, or if it would be too noisy to use one, you can
pick up everyday objects to wield instead. Ashtrays, chairs,
bottles, rubber chickens with a pulley in the middle, fire
extinguishers...even pieces of broken glass can serve as
throwing weapons. And yes, there will be guns for those
who must have them, from pistols to machine guns and
sniper rifles.
Unlike the version on somewhat more "simplistic" plat-
forms, the PC incarnation of the game will be able to host up
to 32-player online matches and will also include a map editor.
Since so many stoic level builders have had hands-on experi-
ence with many of the other Unreal-based editors, making
Command & Conquer is one of the
enera $ games that introduced the world to
real-time strategy and garnered
Chinese are protecting their border zones from Global
Liberation Army (GLA) terrorists, and this time, there is no full-motion video at their disposal (hip hip hooray!). Instead, the
story will unfold during in-game cutscenes interspersed among three eight-mission campaigns, as you choose one of three fac-
tions upon which to impose your will and attempt to control the GLA situation. Instead of the normal difficulty progression
from campaign to campaign, you'll see that this time Westwood has balanced the difficulty levels as equally as possible among
them so that you can play them in any order. The game also introduces a new line of leaders, including the U.S. Commando-
like unit, the GLA sniper, the Chinese hacker, and more. So just when you thought you couldn't absorb another Command &
Conquer game, along comes Generals, which should be at least a "departure" by this point. Well it is, and it isn't.
it cannot continue to shine as brightly unless its games stand
out from the rest, it has taken pains to help this happen.
“What sets Generals apart is it’s unique and exciting approach
to the real-time strategy category. We're creating a
*Hollywood-action-war movie" type of experience that people
can identify with more than they do with orcs and gods,"
explains Skaggs. “Beyond that and our outstanding graphics,
we're working hard to evolve and perfect gameplay with fea-
tures like enhanced veterancy, building and unit upgrade, and
a new approach to online rankings and ladders systems."
All right, then, it sounds a whole lot like...a Command
&Conquer world. But you'll take it. Right?
CGM | DECEMBER 2002
you're seeing today on CNN." But since Westwood knows that
“The franchise has always explored modern war-
fare with a particular style and pacing of gameplay,"
“We're creating a “Hollywood-action-war
movie" type of experience that people
can identify with..."
says Mark Skaggs, general manager of EA Pacific
and executive in charge of production for Command
& Conquer: Generals. "Since it's inception, we've
visited the high-tech, sci-fi oriented world of
Tiberian Sun and the over-the-top alternative history
of Red Alert. Generals continues this trend by
exploring the chaos and intensity of the modern war
maps for this game should be
a smooth transition.
So the XIII comic adven-
ture of the 1980s steps into
this decade, boldly and con-
fidently, with a retro-trendy
twist. Sometime next year
we'll see if it cuts the mus-
tard. If it does, that might
prove that publishers don't
necessarily need to target
Everyman. And that would
be, in two words, very cool.
=
==
==
-—
=
=
=
<=
\\\\\\\\\\
“Fortunately, our laudatory statues and
personal satisfaction are not ‘either/or
items.' You can easily have both."
7122412 Ї 32
— Parmele
ГЕТО
TRAILER PARK TYCOON KING OF THE PARK
SWEEPSTAKES OFFICIAL RULES
No purchase necessary. You may enter by going to the
website at www.jaleco.com
beginning on 10/22/02 through 11:59PM (ET) 02/28/03
and submitting an on-line entry in accordance with the
on-screen instructions. You may also enter by hand-
printing your name and complete address on a 3" x 5"
card. Mail entry in an envelope to: Trailer Park Tycoon
King of The Park Sweepstakes, P.O. Box 8553,
Hts, IL 60070. Entries must be postmarked by
and received by 03/07/03. Limit one entry per person
regardless of method of entry. Multiple entries, including
multiple entries by the same entrant using different email
addresses, will void all entries by the entrant. In the event
of a dispute regarding the identity of the person submitti
an online entry, the online entry will be deemed submi
by the person in whose name the email account is
registered, provided that meets all eligibility criteria
set forth in these Official Rules. Jaleco Entertainment
("Sponsor") assumes no responsibility for computer
system, hardware, software or program malfunctions
or for other errors, failures, or delays in computer
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damaged, postage-due or misdirected entries or mail.
All entries become the property of the Sponsor and none
will be returned. If, in Sponsor's opinion, there is any
suspected or actual evidence of tampering with any
portion of the sweepstakes, or if technical difficulties
compromise the integrity of the promotion, Sponsor
reserves the right to suspend, modify or terminate the
sweepstakes and conduct a random drawing to award
the prizes using all entries received as of the date of
action taken by Sponsor. DRAWING: Winners will be
selected in a random drawing on or about 03/12/03 by
an i indent judging organization whose decisions
will be final on all matters relating to this sweepstakes.
ELIGIBILITY: Sweepstakes open to legal residents of
the fifty (60) United States and the District of Columbia,
18 years of age or older, except employees of Jaleco
Entertainment, its respective affiliates, subsidiaries,
adve ising, sales promotion and judging agencies and
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PRIZES: One (1) Grand Prize: a King of The Park Prize
Pack, mouin ono (1) La-Z Boy Recliner,
one (1) 32" Television, one (1) Electric Bug Zapper,
one (1) 12' Inflatable Pool and Six (6) Plastic Pink
Flamingos. Approximate retail value ("ARV"): $2,980.00.
Twenty five (25) First Prizes: a Trailer Park n PC
game. ARV: $50.00, each. Total ARV: $4,230.00. Limit
one m ра household. :
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depend on the total number of eligible entries receiv
from all methods combined. Prizes will be awarded,
provided they are property Claimed. By entering, entrants
agree to abide by be bound by these rules and the
judges' decisions. Prizes are non-transferable. No cash
redemptions or substitutions ure except by Sponsor,
who may substitute a prize of equal or greater value if the
featured prize becomes unavailable. All taxes on prizes
are winners' sole responsibility. By accepting prizes,
winners agree that neither Jaleco Entertainment, its
respective affiliates, subsidiaries, and/or any of their
respective shareholders, directors, officers, distributors,
employees or agendes will have any liability whatsoever
for any injuries, losses, harm, damage, cost, or expense
arising from or in connection with participation in this
promotion or any prize related activities or the acceptance,
ssession, use and/or misuse of prize including, without
imitation, any personal injury or property damage.
Acceptance of prize further constitutes winner's consent
that the Sponsor may use winner's name, likeness and/or
rize and biographical information worldwide without
imitation for advertising or promotional purposes without
further compensation, except where prohibited. All Federal,
State, and Local laws and regulations apply. Void where
prohibited. WINNER'S LIST: For a list of winners, available
after 03/12/03 send a self-addressed, stamped envelope
before 04/01/03 to: King of The Park
Winners, P.O. Box 8419, Dept TK, e
Prospect Hts, IL 60070.Sponsor: * | nn
Jaleco Entertainment, 119 W. Tupper а eco
St., Buffalo, NY 14202 ENTERTAINMENT
“мете trying to take the
RPG-thriller gameplay to the
next level...more freedom,
more tension, more immersion,
more consequence."
*...the whole game
has been storyboarded
from start to finish."
Tints WES
Never my,
choice:
Life has been tough for the
space sim lately. Once the
definition of “hot PC game”
with titles like Wing
Commander and X-Wing,
even admirable space sims
just don’t get the respect
they deserve in the market-
place anymore. Digital Anvil
and Microsoft intend to
change all that with
Freelancer, a game of such
enormous scope and production values that its oft-
delayed status is almost forgivable. This game
promises it all: an expansive living universe where
factions battle, miners mine, and traders trade with or without your interference, all the time.
But the real hook is the promised accessibility. Digital Anvil has worked very hard on cre-
ating an interface and heads-up display that anyone can handle, along with mouse-driven
controls that take the frustration (and joystick requirement) out of space combat without
removing the excitement. Lead Designer Jorg Neumann says Freelancer is, “Part space sim,
part RPG, part adventure game, part action game. With Freelancer we're breaking all the
rules and doing it beautifully.” It looks like all those pieces are finally coming together for
what could very well be the rebirth of a classic PC game genre.
Full Throttle, the classic adventure game from
LucasArts, will undergo a facelift in the year 2003
with the release of, get this, Full Throttle II. Tim
Schafer’s original game was a tale of corporate espionage and murder set in a mini-adventure
format, with a few arcade sequences (gang fights and demolition derbying) thrown in to broad-
en its appeal. LucasArts describes this as a “free wheeling action-adventure that will offer a
humorous original story, furious bare knuckle fighting, and the thrill of high speed biking.”
The hero will once again be Ben, who, for all his tough-guy appearance and mannerisms,
was really a softie at heart. After all, he let a woman work on his bike while he was out on
errands, and he recycled. “The first Full Throttle was hugely influential in the design for the
sequel, much as you’d expect it to be,” says Sean Cleark, the game’s director. “In essence,
we've used the first game as a reference point for many of our stylistic decisions. Ben is a
very strong character who deserves more adventures, and the gritty world that we saw in
the first game is a great place for those adventures to take place, so it makes sense to use
this approach.”
Clark’s offbeat humor was apparent in the
last Monkey Island game—a good thing, since
this sequel will certainly require a
piece of it. There are few specifics
about it, as LucasArts has
released little to no information
and only lists “2003” as the
release date.
Revive away and make our
day, LucasArts.
| Www.anarchy-online.com
© Funcom 2002 All rights
50
lucky $3
PC gamers have anticipated Halo's arrival since its Ё
debut at MacWorld three years ago. Then the
unthinkable happened: Microsoft bought Bungie
and the notorious Mac and PC developer took its hottest proper-
ty and turned it into an Xbox game. Next summer, 18 months
after its console release, we'll finally
get the shooter on the PC thanks to
the porting efforts of Gearbox. After
a year and a half of great PC shoot-
ers, will Halo hold up? Probably so,
because Halo is nothing if not slight-
ly off-kilter from your standard PC
shooter. The variety of vehicles,
always-available grenades and melee
attacks, stellar combat AI, and
unique twist of only being able to carry two weapons at a time will probably
make Halo stand out from the crowded PC shooter scene as much in 2003 and the
Xbox version did in 2001.
There will be obvious improvements like sharper textures, better overall resolu-
tion, and tighter mouse & keyboard control, but the biggest enhancement will be
to the already riotously fun multiplayer. Gearbox President Randy Pitchford tells
us, “Our goal is to make Halo’s on-line multiplayer component be the first choice
for fans cf on-line action games. The unique mix of weapons, ground and air vehi-
cles, game modes, and huge outdoor and indoor environments are all available to create a most amazing on-line experience.”
When Bioware
joined forces
with LucasArts
to develop its Star Wars role-playing games^Knights of the Old Republic, fans of Baldur's Gate’et. al., rejoiced not only at its
brand new story that takes place some 4000 years prior to Episode One, but at its new races, more than 50 ways of using Force
powers, and its variety of *mini games." The game will also offer a universe spanning ten different worlds, including familiar
favorites as well as completely new ones. You'll check into the spaceship Ebon Hawk, but you won't check out, as it serves as
shelter during the off-hours, transportation during your deployment, and storage all around.
*We are applying things we've learned from the Baldur's
1 Gate series and Neverwinter Nights to make the quests more
fun and compelling than ever before," says LucasArts Producer
Casey Hudson, but what will help to alleviate the feeling that
this is something that will just shriek "Baldur's Gate III" at
every turn? Well, according to Producer Mike Gallo, there will
be several things. “The view in the game is completely differ-
ent than any of the games in the Baldur's Gate series," he says.
"The camera is lower, to give the player a view of the charac-
ters and party that
they've never seen
before. Most
importantly, we
wanted to capture
the feel of the Star
Wars universe
with its grand vis-
tas and beautiful
landscapes. This
obviously created
some other challenges in the design
and game control departments, but
we're confident that players will be
happy with the results!"
CGM | DECEMBER 2002
Some
Limes ss
Brian Reynolds is one of the great unsung
heroes of PC gaming. He brought us
Colonization, Civilization II, and Alpha Centauri, Met IS)
but was rarely able to step out of the sizeable shadow of Sid Meier until he started his own
company, Big Huge Games. So when he says, “We are creating a game for everyone who Е m
ever wished to see more strategic depth in their RTS games,” we listen. We listen well. The inevitables MEN
game he’s talking about is their debut title, Rise of t d а е —
Nations, and it promises to bring some of the ter-
ritorial battle and large scale, long term planning
of games like Civilization to the Age
of Empires milieu. This could truly
be a case of “you got your peanut
butter in my chocolate," where the
combination of two great games,
mixed together just so, produces a
whole greater than its parts. If
there's anyone we'd trust to pull it
off, it's Brian Reynolds.
When Star Wars Galaxies: An
Empire Divided was initially
announced, not only were the Star
Wars junkies psyched, the entite’massively multiplayer online gaming community was
bowled over as well. This joint venture with Sony Interactive brings the experienced design-
ers of EverQuest into the world of George Lucas' Empire. They do intend to differentiate it
from the rest of the games on the market,
though. “Probably the
most significant fea-
ture that we've avoid-
ed for Star Wars
Galaxies is the use of
strict ‘levels’ familiar
to so many other
games,” says Producer
Haden Blackman.
“Galaxies uses a skill-
based character
advancement system,
j which allows players
greater control over the development of their
characters. We also avoid a situation where players are segregated and stratified by their rel-
ative experience level. Instead, any group of characters can fruitfully join forces, and it's
likely that each character will bring different skills to the table." € k
Story continuity has a lot to do with which characters you will encounter in the game. s А
For example, they cannot include Obi-Wan, because he's already been killed by Darth ik THE NOTUM WARS
Vader, but Jabba is still alive so he will appear, as will Luke, Han, Leia, and Vader. “In 4 - :
most cases, the ‘named’ NPCs will be providing missions for player characters,” explains
Blackman, “although we do have special circumstances where an NPC might be an enemy.
The game will also be full of “unnamed” NPCs, like Tusken Raiders, who will serve as ene-
mies as well.”
With weird mounts to ride, the possibility of vehicular add-ons, and the ability to become
a Jedi yourself, it doesn’t get a whole lot more enticing than this.
www.anarchy-online.com
ght © Funcom 2002 All rights resen
ludy
tron 2 () ME “[It] takes advantage of
0 VU the this unique premise and
original Tron hit theaters, it's offers a refreshing
finally getting a sequel. The E
thing is, it’s not a movie. departure from the gritty
Disney started the resurrection ШЕЕ LL
of the Tron franchise with бег їїг5ї регзоп IRL
20th anniversary DVD last year 9
and will take it to the next log- games:
ical step with the release of among these is the glow effect that makes the game look
Tron 2.0, developed by what is rapidly becoming the premiere as electric as the film, and though it was co-developed with
shooter developer, Monolith. A new movie, tentatively titled NVIDIA, it should run on any video card that can handle
Tron: Killer App, is sort of in pre-production, but you can put it pixel shaders.
out of your mind—if the Tron arcade games made a lot more As Jet Bradley, son of Alan (creator of the original Tron
money and garnered more fame than the movie, it's only right program), you'll once again be digitized into the world of
that we consider the new game the true sequel. Tron, but a lot has changed in 20 years. You'll visit locations
"The film Tron centers on a society of programs operating like firewalls, the “Progress Bar," PDAs, Internet hubs, and
inside the computer,” says lead designer Frank Rooke, “bat- even the old computer systems from the original film. You'll
tling for their lives and the freedom of other programs on toss around an upgradeable disc weapon and take down cor-
game grids, which translates naturally into a computer rupted programs with other primitives: the sphere, mesh, and
game." One look at the game and you know it's going to be rod. And yes, you'll hop on an all-new light cycle, designed
something different. “[It] takes advantage of this unique by Syd Mead, the famous designer that worked on the origi-
premise and offers a refreshing departure from the gritty nal film, as well as Blade Runner. Multiplayer fans will be
hyperrealism seen in other first person action games," he happy to hear that they'll toss discs against their online bud-
adds, and that's exactly what makes it interesting. dies in an online arena reminiscent of the Rocket Arena mod
Monolith's game uses what they call the Triton engine, a for Quake games, so there's a lot more to look forward to
version of the Jupiter system that powers No One Lives than an impressive single-player game, especially if you're a
Forever 2, only with some fancy special effects added. Chief fan of the Discs of Tron arcade classic.
Did anyone think that Blizzard Entertainment would not jump onto the
Wor () Магсга [ bandwagon with today's proliferation of massively multiplayer games?
World of Warcraft will try to bring the streamlined-yet-still-sophisticat-
ed gameplay that has been Blizzard's trademark to a land in which you can con-
| trol just one of the characters that you have been lassoing and ordering around for
many years. “The world is very much shaped by the backstory of Warcraft, taking
place a few years after the events of WarCraft III,” says Team Lead Mark Kern.
*Players who have played our real-time strategy games will recognize entire lands,
battlefields, and heroes. Even the buildings and towns will be familiar, right down
to the little peasant trains hauling gold or lumber between townships."
While we know that designers are trying to set this game apart from its contem-
poraries, it's not an easy thing to do with the immense scope of material already out
there. What will work? "It really can't be distilled down to one thing," explains
Kern, “but it's rather the combination of many ele-
*Players who have
۰ ۰
played our real-time plus; third time’s а charm?...
ments. The beauty of the art, the lay- strategy games will i ' тч
out of the world, the design of the recognize entire . d
creatures, the balance of the combat,
the depth of the character develop- lands, battlefields,
ment, the variety of the quests, the and heroes."
facility of the UI, the richness of the
audio, the attention to detail, and a hundred other factors, both
large and small, all contribute to making the World of Warcraft a
truly epic experience." Think he studied marketing? Despite a 2003
release date, Blizzard will most likely adhere to its “when it's
done" paradigm, and that's (probably) a good thing.
Dette ўе а, Эг
oce paon M Dou
52 СОМ | DECEMBER 2002
THE NOTUM WARS
arch
Online
Tine TUSGURGIAS mot miset-
There is no im apathy.
— À—
К саш <
TEEN
م
NS =”
www.anarchy-online.com
Copyright © Funcom 2002 All rights reserved
Xe &lder Scrolls IH
*ALL HAIL THE NEW KING
jOF.RPGS!" -PC ZoNE
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RRIOR TO” НЕТ
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سے GONE GOLD, PLATINUM AWARD RPGDOT, EDITORS’ CHOICE
i GAME PEN, NUMB THUMB AWARD XISTENZE, CHOICE AWARD
{ GAMESPOT, GAME OF THE MONTH VN ROUNDUP, STAMP OF APPROVAL
ALLOUTGAMES, SEAL OF APPROVAL WORTHPLAYING.COM, EDITORS' CHOICE
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COMING NOVEMBER 2002
THE EXCITING EXPANSION TO THE
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© 2002 Bethesda Softworks LLC, a ZeniMax Media company.
The Elder Scrolls, Morrowind, Tribunal, Bethesda Softworks and its logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of ZeniMax Media Inc. All Right Reserved.
geeky gear for
the cyber-savvy
As inevitable as the patch that fixes the
bug you encountered in your first five
minutes with the latest blockbuster, it's
the time of the year when you're
forced to figure out the interests of all
of your so-called friends, or relatives,
or spouses, or various paid lackeys,
hangers-on, etc. Or alternately,
they're trying to figure out what you
want. Since we normally cover a lot
of those game-like things in each
issue—and let's face it, you probably
already know what you want on that
front—we decided to single out some
unusual and not-so-unusual gear that
ranges from the seriously cool (the
Windows version of the iPod) to the seriously
stupid (a SexyMouse?).
At just a little larger than a Zippo lighter, you
won't find a wealth of controls on Creative's
Nomad MuVo (actual size, left), just forward,
back, play/pause, and volume. But simplicity
is what it’s all about. There's no software to
install—just slide out the player section from
the battery section and jam it into a USB port,
and it'll show up as a removable drive. Drag
CREATIVE ‘n’ drop up to 64MB of Windows Media or
MP3 files there for listening, or drop any other
file to transport it to another computer. On the
other end of the spectrum lies the Nomad
Jukebox 3 (above), a 20GB or 40GB portable
MP3 player with both USB and Firewire con-
nectivity. It's a little smaller than a portable
CD player and features a relatively simple
interface, although its less elegant than
what's found on the iPod. Creative's bundled
software is ghastly, with overly designed
interfaces and pointless splash screens that
pop up on Windows startup. Thank God it
works with Media Player, which, even in its
slightly convoluted state, is better than
Creative's stuff. [$129-$499, www.cre-
ative.com]
56 CGM | DECEMBER 2002
Playlists
Broiwse
Extras
Settings
` About
v v V WV V
Giving in to the overwhelming demand, Apple is now releas-
ing a PC version of its popular iPod (actual size), and it's still
the smallest, prettiest, most user-friendly hard drive based
МРЗ player out there. Barely bigger than a deck of cards and
weighing less than seven ounces, the large wheel interface
and big screen make it easy to use. Provided it's exclusively
used with MP3s, as the iPod won't play Windows Media
files. Oh, and it's FireWire-only, so if all you have is USB,
you're out of luck. And it's not cross-compatible, so Mac
iPods only work on Macs and Windows iPods only work on
PCs, though quite conveniently Apple made a way for
Windows iPods to be converted into Mac units (but not the
other way around). Okay, so it has some drawbacks, but if all
you've got are MP3s and you only want to use it on a PC with
a FireWire port anyway it's one great digital music player.
And you know those PC hackers will extend its functionality
before long. [$299-$499, www.apple.com]
Want something that holds more songs than a standard MP3 player but is cheaper than a hard drive-
based one? The RioVolt SP350 (right) plays regular audio CDs as well as MP3 and Windows Media
files burned on CD-R and CD-RWs. The new version improves on last year's model by including the for-
merly extra-cost car kit for free, plus it offers 32 minutes of skip protection and improved headphones.
It still includes an FM tuner, a remote, and a carrying case, and software upgrades to past models
added support for WinAmp playlists. Оп the downsized front, the Rio S35S (actual size, below) is the
latest version of the player that started the entire portable MP3 craze. Though not quite as cool as the
MuVo, it’s still small enough to attach to your wrist, has 128MB of memory (upgradable to 256MB),
includes a clock and stopwatch, and has an FM tuner for those days when you can't live without your
sanitized corporate radio. [$179-$199, www.sonicblue.com]
WWW.CGONLINE.COM
57
geeky gear for
58
10 under $10
Like a fine wine, great games don't go
bad with age, they just get patched.
Not only can you buy five of these
games for the price of one brand-new
triple-A hit, but they'll run fine on older
computers. Find them on the bargain
rack at your local retailer.
Aliens Versus Predator Gold
Patches to the first made it a much bet-
ter game than it shipped, and it's still
good enough to make you jump out of
your seat. It's certainly better than
Primal Hunt for the sequel.
The Curse of Monkey Island
Snappy cel-shaded animation and a
talking skull named Murray make the
third Monkey Island game better than
the fourth installment.
Dungeon Keeper 2
It's part environment sim, part real-time
strategy, all funny. Be the bad guy and
crush the do-gooders!
Grim Fandango
Still one of the best adventure games of
the last decade. For extra-good boys,
find a walkthrough online, print it out,
and stuff it in the box. Just in case.
Homeworld Cataclysm
This stand-alone product is easily con-
fused for a Homeworld add-on, but it
doesn't require the original. It is, howev-
er, every bit as good.
Jedi Knight: Dark Forces 11
One of the greatest shooters of all time,
and a pretty fun online game to boot. If
your old rig can't handle Jedi Knight ЇЇ,
the force is with the original.
Serious Sam
You don't need to splurge for Second
Edition when the first is almost the
exact same thing. Pure arcade blast-
'em-up fun, it's like a first-person
Robotron.
StarCraft
For all of the people out there who
haven't played it (both of you), this is
still one of the best real-time strategy
games ever made, and different enough
from WarCraft Ill not to be ignored in
favor of Blizzard's latest.
Typing of the Dead
It's the best first-person typing shooter
ever made. Worth $10 just to laugh at
the opening scenes where people shoot
zombies with keyboards and
Dreamcasts on their backs.
X-Wing Alliance
The last great X-Wing sim. Enough said. _
CGM | DECEMBER 2002
Being the "Ultimate Mousepad" seems
to have as much importance as being the
premiere nose-picker in the world, but
there's just a little something about the
stylish mousepads from EverGlide that
bring out the uber-geek in the geekiest of
geeks. Maybe it's the shapes, or the pat-
terns (designed for optical mice, appar-
ently), or the texture of the pad itself, but
they just work. Whether they work better
than your desk, a piece of paper, or a pic-
ture of Natalie Portman is unknown. And
until MouspadMark 2003 is finally
released, we'll never know for sure.
[$9.99-$17.99, www.everglide.com]
The Armchair Mousepad is for the lazy gamer who wants to
deathmatch from the comfort of his or her Lay-Z-Boy. As you
might guess from the name, it's a mousepad that attaches to
the arm of a chair. You may think it's dumb today, but with
wireless networking and gaming laptops taking off... it may
be essential tomorrow. Now if they could hook up with
EverGlide... [$19.95, www.gizmojockey.com]
Anyone who's tried to move their computer has probably said
to themselves, "there's got to be a better way to do this."
Enter the GearGrip accessories from CaseAce. Strong Velcro
straps wrap around your computer or monitor with a soft
durable handle up top to make carrying easy. Some models
have pockets on the side for your keyboard, mouse, cables,
etc. It's a simple idea done right that really reduces the stress
of lugging your PC to your buddy's house. [$19.95 - $39.95,
www.caseace.com]
It's about time clothing got wired. At least that's the theory behind the SCOTTeVEST, a "technology
enabled" jacket. Sporting more zippers than a leather fetish convention and more pockets than a mar-
supial petting zoo, it's surprisingly stylish. So what makes it "technology enabled?" Consider the "con-
duit" system to run wires from your MP3 or CD player to the loops that hold your earphones in place,
or the storage area for your pocket PC or Gameboy, the one for power supplies, another for maga-
zines... basically, it's the only jacket that requires a manual to operate. By wearing this jacket, it's vir-
tually guaranteed that you'll be the uber-geek wherever you go. Now where did you put that pack of
gum.... [$139.99, www.scottevest.com]
eal ime Ие S nooter
COMING 2003
$- 2 pe
Ww W W ‘ G A M E S Я С О M
©2002 S2 Games, LLC. Savage is a trademark of S2 Games, LLC.
iGames is a trademark of Internet Game Distribution, LLC. IGAMES
geeky gear for
Fantasy Flight Games has been cleverly mucking about for a number of years now,
10 you may bringing role-playing and fantasy games based on various intellectual properties
have missed into your living rooms, basements, and convention centers. Some of its newest
Sure, everyone knows about or remem- games for this season are A Game of Thrones, a collectible card game based on
bers the WarCraft Ills or the Neverwin- George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire fantasy novels; the Call of Cthulhu
ter Nights’, but what about the games Nocturne RPG campaign; and most highly anticipated, the latest expansion for its
that fell through the cracks? series of popular Tolkien games, Lord of the Rings: Sauron. This version puts you
Age of Wonders Il: The Wizard's Throne in the roles of the hobbits Merry, Pippin, Fatty, and Frodo, on their quest to destroy
One of the best games released this the One Ring. Requiring the original boardgame to play, you'll work cooperatively
year, this turn-based stunner sports across four boards to overcome challenges and attempt to prevent the Ringbearer
more pure gameplay than most of the from being corrupted. [$19.95 - $44.95, www.fantasyflightgames.com]
games on this list combined.
Command & Conquer Renegade
It's hard to imagine "missing" any
Command & Conquer game, but this one
kind of left the public eye almost imme-
diately after shipping. Multiplayer, in
particular, is still worth your time.
Disciples Il: Dark Prophecy
Released very early in the year, this is
the game Heroes of Might and Magic IV
is trying to be. It's polished, looks good,
and has a ton of gameplay.
As New Line's second installment of the huge Lord of the Rings film trilogy releas-
es worldwide this holiday season, there are four additions to the Two Towers
Action Figures set. Joining Elf Archer and Berserker Urk-Hai, Grishnach and
Merry, and Ugluk and Pippin are Legolas, Faramir, a Gondorian Ranger, and an
Easterling Warrior. The six-inch, deluxe, fully-poseable figures come complete
with accessories and are based upon real-scan molds. [$9.95-$21.95,
Global Operations www.theonering.com]
It's very Counter-strike, yes, and the net
code wasn't great at launch, but patch-
es improved play considerably. Too bad
no one’s playing it.
Duke Nukem Manhattan Project
A simple, fun, inexpensive, side-
scrolling throwback, and the only place
you'll see Duke again in your lifetime.
Probably.
Laser Squad Nemesis
The creators of X-COM go purely online.
Fans of turn-based tactical combat
should try this out at
www.lasersquadnemesis.com.
Since 1983, Dragon's Lair merchandise has come in many
forms, from books to binoculars and guns to game tutorials.
¥ With the advent of Dragon's Lair 3D, Digital Leisure has
released action figures of Dirk the Daring, Princess Daphne,
Singe, and the evil Mordroc. The set contains all four sturdy,
well-articulated figures, plus accessories such as Dirk's
Eyeball Tentacle Creature, and Daphne's Fire Drake. Detailed
yet simplistic in design, these figures should last through the
next century. [$29.95, www.digitalleisure.com]
Schizm: Mysterious Journey
There haven't been many good adven-
ture games lately; this is one of them.
It's a must-have for fans of Myst.
Star Trek Bridge Commander
X-Wing creator Larry Holland's superb
simulator came and went, but not
because of a lack of quality. Its cine- >
matic qualities captured the feel of the The large variety of Final Fantasy X
Trek universe, and outstanding Al let Action Figures will give collectors quite
you to feel like a commander instead of arun for their money this holiday season.
a pilot. There are both fixed-pose and fully-pos-
able figures with varying degrees of
detail. They are intricately costumed, -
and some have thin and pliable material
for pants and elbow armor that allow for
freer movement of joints and a more real-
istic physique. They range in height from
6 1/2to 14 1/2inches, and most come with
accessories that befit their faithfully
recreated characterization, such as
Kimahri Lonzo's oversized spear, and
Lulu'S animated doll weapon, Mog.
[$12.99-$34.99, ccls.diamondcomics.com]
Starships Unlimited: Divided Galaxies
If you're waiting for Master of Orion III,
you might want to give this a try. It's
4X space strategy at its best-nimble,
elegant, and addictive. Check it out at
WWNW.apezone.com.
Warlord Battlecry 2
Possibly the year's best real-time strate-
gy game, SSG continues to update this
sleeper, adding 13 new downloadable
scenarios, new music, and a new side
Al. Amazing.
60 CGM | DECEMBER 2002
Ву The Developers of the Award-Winning Imperium Galactica’ and Imperium Galactica ІГ
NIm-
IRON
=: amt Lor Раа c
rea AG ic ЧАС Bea =
IN 2104, MANKIND IS ENGAGED IN A FRATRICIDAL WAR BETWEEN EARTH AND MARS POPULATIONS.
AFTER WEEKS OF FIERCE SPACE BATTLES AND HEAVY LOSSES, BOTH SIDES HAVE TO JOIN TOGETHER
AND FORM THE LEGIONS o OF IRON TO FIGHT A NEW ALIEN ENEMY FORCE. —
",..promises to breath new life into the deathly quiet genre of “the game simply looks gorgeous and also plays
sci-fi 3D RTS gaming...one of the best looking games on the E3 very well to boot.” - HOMELAN
showroom floor. "- GAMESPY
www.hegemonia.info
VIOLENCE COM Spy BY Cb DREAMCATCHER
© gam REDE. (ш) wanadoo qme
Software © 2002 Wanadoo Edition. ккө өем to Dres see Miaria Inc n Sonn h America. Co-published by Wanadoo Edition аг ard ren cher Interactive Inc. Developed by Digital Reality. DreamCatcher design and mark are trademarks
of DreamCatcher Interactive, Inc. Microsoft®, Windows® and DirectX® are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. All other brands, product names and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. Ай Rights Reserved.
TEEN
CONTENT AATED BY
ESRB
geeky gear for
ESAE UU me omm omm oum om ommo на ы
Eager to capitalize on the success of the new Monorail, town
residents are buying up Springfield, Monopoly style in
Simpson's Monopoly. It includes customized money and
game board; Monorail Stops and Monorail Stations replace
houses and hotels and the Chance and Community Chest
cards. Also, one of the world's most challenging puzzles
mixes with one of the world's most challenged men with the
Rubik's Simpson's Homer Puzzle. Twist and turn Homer's
head to your heart's content. Of course the original had all
those pretty colors, but Homer definitely has...that five
o'clock shadow. [$11.99-$34.99, www.winning-moves.com,
www.usaopoly.com]
shop 'till you drop
Or at least until your fingers bleed. Here
are a few online shopping destinations
for the cyber junkie.
COMPUTERGEAR
A store for serious geekiness.
[www.computergear.com]
RPGWEAR
Your life won't be complete until you
broadcast your love of EverQuest to the
world via a T-shirt. [www.rpgwear.com]
THINGS YOU NEVER KNEW
EXISTED...
...and for a very good reason. Do you
Cheapass Games, dedicated more to
entertainment than aesthetics, is releas-
ing four new games this season.
Freeloader is a quick-playing board
game “for 3-6 losers.” You drift through
the neighborhood accumulating free
stuff from your friends. Fightball is a
card game that explores the world of a
ruthless future sport. Lord of the Fries
is undergoing a makeover. Set at the
fast food restaurant of the damned
where everyone is a zombie and there's
only one brain to pass around, it's now
appearing in full color. Finally, Diceland,
Deep White Sea is a tabletop combat
game that uses paper dice as the char-
acters. The game system is original,
and the dice are eight-sided, printed in
full color, and about two inches per
side. Cheapass has been nominated for
a total of 23 Origins Awards, the high-
est honor bestowed by the US Hobby
Game industry. Have they won any?
You can bet your Cheapass on it.
[$7.50-$14.95, www.cheapass.com]
For those looking to "blow" a set of speakers without trash-
ing their tweeter, the Revo HotAir Inflatable Portable
Speaker System is what aural dreams are made of. It is, by
far, the finest inflatable speaker system on the market, pro-
ducing rich, deep... well, it generates noise that mostly
resembles the source material. But they are small, portable,
good for a few laughs, and can be used as floatation devices.
Oh wait, the box specifically says you can't use them for that,
damn. [$45, www.ellula.com]
VU PLAT SIE TNT
like shopping at Spencer Gifts? Find the
stuff that lingers (for years) on the bot-
tom shelf of that fine mall chain at this
website. [www.johnsonsmith.com]
THINK GEEK
The epicenter of all things geeky.
Hardware, caffeine, you name it, it has
it. [www. thinkgeek.com]
62 CGM | DECEMBER 2002
Fashioned after the Venus D'Milo, just in case you thought it p
had no class, the SexyMouse (not actual size) may put a lit-
tle excitement in your "point ‘n’ click." The naked body mouse
includes adapters for PS/2 and serial ports, and is fully com-
patible with all systems and major applications. Right and left
click your way to paradise as each mouse comes with a six
foot extended cable that hints at a far more extendable you.
[$19.95, www.kopes.com]
THE POWER OF FIVE
REVOLUTIONIZE THE WAY
YOU INTERACT WITH YOUR PC
P5 is an electrifying and innovative
PC peripheral that gives the user
total intuitive interaction with
3D and virtual environments
(Games, web sites,
educational software, etc.).
With P5, brandish a mighty
>
sword in a video game, walk
through an online room or pick
up objects on a screen, each with
simple movements of your hand.
No complicated keystrokes.
No fumbling of à mouse or joystick.
PUT THE POWER OF CONTROLLER FEATURES
FIVE IN YOUR HANDS - Lightweight, ergonomic
OCTOBER 2002 design for easy, intuitive play.
Weighs just 4.5 oz.
The first widely available
Virtual 3D controller.
"Joystick and mouse control
“over all 3D applications.
6 degrees of tracking ensures
realistic movement.
* Bend sensor and optical-
tracking technology gives
true-to-life mobility.
* Easy, plug-and-play set-up.
Special Premier Edition Features
3 New P5-Enabled Free Games
Including Hitman 2, Tiger Hunt,
and a Demo Version of
Beach Head 2002.
RECEPTOR FEATURES
* Infrared control receptor
with scratch-resistant,
anti-reflective lens
* Easy-to-use anywhere —
desktop, living room, etc.
For a complete list of retailers, visit www.essentialreality.com
E SES EN TARA L
КЕБА сот
www.essentialreality.com $ 0 f tw a I e D GameStop Mean
PC
uus „ы
©2002, ESSENTIAL REALITY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
IS
OO A feast for the eyes and mind.
an excellent game and a perfect example of
. what an MMORPG should be."
| Matt Leyendecker, ActionTrip.com | ;
9 5 out of IO "Totally absorbing. a game that.I'll
be playing long after this review is posted."
Jason Maclsaac, €lectric Playground > ^.
"earth & Beyond continues to impress with 4
great graphics and great gameplay." à H^.
Jeff Green. Computer Gaming: World YR: f i, с А
Ф 4 Earth & Beyond - shows a lot of style
t
=. and a lot of vision."
5 Chris Hudak Computer Games Magazine
sci-fi crowd the persistent-world game
"Earth & Beyond should oer the hardcore m P
they've been waiting for."
+ à Rob Smith, Editor-iri Chief, PC Gane
-*
e ле тев) ce
Blood
Violence
The content of this game may change
due to interactive exchanges.
Dcct _ nj
RE
Challenge Everything"
© 2002 Electronic Arts Inc. Electronic Arts, Command & Conquer, EA GAMES, the EA GAMES logo and Challenge Everything are trademarks or registered trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc. in thé U.S. and/or otfier
countries. All rights reserved.
Wwwweerthandbeyond.com 8
ool Keyword eertH&beuond-
^ Earth & Beyond" is a live game you play via the Internet, allowing you to play with thousands of other users. AN INTERNET CONNECTION IS REQUIRED TO PLAY. Internet service providers usually charge a monthly
fee to provide this access. ELECTRONIC ARTS CHARGES A MONTHLY SUBSCRIPTION FEE FOR THIS ONLINE PRODUCT, separate from your Internet access charges. Online gameplay subject to the Earth & Beyond
Membership Agreement and Terms of Service. YOU MUST BE 13+ TO REGISTER FOR THIS GAME. EA RESERVES THE RIGHT TO TERMINATE THE ONLINE SERVICE FOR THIS PRODUCT AFTER 90 DAYS NOTICE.
HARDWARE
technology for today
JASON CROSS
when will 5D really matter?
Gamers can't live without it, but the mass market ignores it
The PC games market has never been more healthy. 2001 should have
been a horrible year for PC games, financially. New PC sales took a nose-
dive, the economy was bad, and all the marketing and mass-media atten-
tion was placed squarely on the launch of two new console systems
(Xbox and Gamecube), the incumbent system they challenged (PS2), and
the new lord of handheld gaming (Game Boy Advance). What's more, the
general quality of game releases was a bit on the poor side, with some
notable exceptions. By all accounts, overall PC game sales should have
slumped big-time.
But according to NPDTechworld, sales volume was up from 62.9 mil-
lion to 65.3 million, about a 496 jump. Dollar sales saw a similar leap,
from $1.36 billion to $1.42 billion. All those games, even in a “weak”
year, and all I can think is “where are the 3D games?"
If you're reading this magazine, you probably think I'm smoking crack.
3D games are everywhere. Gamers have been buying video cards with 3D
acceleration for ages. Hell, we went out of our way to buy video cards
that didn't do anything but 3D acceleration back in the days of the
Voodoo2. The magazine you're holding, and others like it, regularly focus
most of their attention on games with some pretty slick 3D graphics.
When it comes to games, 3D is definitely king. Or is it? Let's take a look
at the numbers. The 20 top-selling games of last year were as follows:
1. The Sims 11. Black & White
2. RollerCoaster Tycoon 12. Frogger
3. Harry Potter & The Sorcerer's Stone 13. Roller Coaster Tycoon Loopy
4. Diablo Il Expansion: Lord of Landscapes
Destruction
5. The Sims: House Party Expansion
6. The Sims: Livin' Large Expansion
7. The Sims: Hot Date Expansion
8. Diablo Il
9
0
14. Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2
15. Backyard Basketball
16. SimCity 3000 Unlimited
17. Backyard Baseball 2001
18. Age Of Empires II: The Conquerors
19. Max Payne
20. SimCity 3000
. Sim Theme Park
. Age Of Empires ЇЇ: Age of Kings
Those games probably account for half of the 65 million games sold
last year. Of everything on that list, only two actually
require real 3D acceleration, Max Payne and Black &
White. Two whole games! What's going on here? Why
are all the big sellers ignoring 3D acceleration?
The general theory from the suits is that one of the rea-
sons those games are so successful is because they don't
need a fancy high-end machine to run, and that assumes
3D acceleration. Okay, that seems logical, but I think it
assumes a causal relationship where there's only a correla-
tion. The processor and RAM requirements for the games
66 CGM | DECEMBER 2002
above are fairly slim, but still steep enough that
anyone who has the CPU and RAM required to run
them probably also has a card with reasonable 3D
acceleration. I would submit that most of the
games on the list above are breakout hits because
they're accessible, easy-to-play games that in many
cases relate in some way to real life or pop culture.
Or they're from Blizzard.
This focus on avoiding 3D acceleration seems
to fly in the face of the fact that all the hit con-
sole games are 3D. You have to look long and
hard to find a 2D game on a console system these
days at all, let alone a popular one. The experi-
ence of “quality 3D" is obviously a selling point. I
think PC game publishers and developers are just
afraid to embrace it in games that are made for a
wide audience. When I look at the equipment in
a $799 PC from six months ago, I think they can
give up that fear.
And perhaps they are. Mass-market targeted
titles are starting to require 3D acceleration. Age
of Mythology is an obvious example, but SimCity
4 is a better one. The top 20 list for this year, I
predict, will be almost half-filled with games
requiring 3D acceleration. The rest will be Sims
expansions. The 3D push should have been hard-
er, though. Last year's list should be almost full
of games requiring 3D acceleration: better looking
games that stand up better next to the latest con-
sole fare. I honestly think that one of the reasons
PC games aren't selling as fast as their console
cousins is because the mass-market games don't
deliver enough “wow” factor, and the PC games
that have the “wow” factor are too hard to play
or too esoteric for the mass market. e
TIP OF THE MONTH
Startup appli
Everyone talks about updating dri-
vers for video cards, and I've read
about updating drivers for sound cards, but
how important is it to update drivers for every-
thing else? Motherboards, monitors, etc.?
Also, how important is the quality of the
monitor? Other than getting a non-flat mon-
itor and the size, are monitors that differ-
ent? When upgrading a video card or over-
all system, can you use the same monitor?
I am thinking about getting а new com-
puter, but | have so many programs on my
current computer that the thought of hav-
ing to start over is quite daunting. Is there
a way for a non-technically savvy person
to transfer files (MP3s, photos, saved doc-
uments, etc.) from the hard drive in one
computer to а new computer? Also, if |
go from Windows 98SE to Windows Me in
the new computer, would the programs
from the old computer that were "created"
with 98SE still be able to run?
Greg R.
A e Lots of good questions there, Greg.
e First, it's extremely important to
have the most up to date drivers for every-
thing. Monitors typically only have one
inf file that describes them, and it's rarely
updated, but out of date motherboard dri-
vers can cause incompatibilities, poor per-
formance, you name it. Similarly, updated
firmware for CD-ROMs and such can add
new capabilities or make them work better
with some software. Even new keyboard or
mouse drivers can add features and fix
bugs. Always keep all your drivers current,
TECHBYTES
New skin on an old favorite —
Just in time for the PC game-
buying rush of the holidays,
Microsoft is re-tooling and
re-releasing a couple of their
more popular SideWinder periph-
erals. Both the Sidewinder Force Feedback Wheel and
the Force Feedback 2 joystick now feature sporty red
styling. There's not much else new about them, though:
the guts inside are the same as before and the price
hasn't really changed, either (they're $100
each). So if you see what looks like an
all-new Sidewinder in the store,
look again. It's probably just Ф
a restyled version of the
one you've already got.
send questions to qa@cgonline.com
not just the video and sound card.
For regular tube-style (CRT) monitors,
there's honestly not nearly as much differ-
ence in quality as there used to be. Even
cheap CRTs have quite good clarity, bright-
ness, and supported resolutions/refresh
rates these days. When you upgrade your
computer, or any part of it, you absolutely
can use the same monitor. In fact, I would
recommend spending a little more on a
really good large monitor, with the inten-
tion of keeping it through several upgrades.
The same goes for speakers, by the way.
If you're getting a new computer, it will
almost surely come with Windows XP, not
Windows Me, and that's a good thing. The
easiest way to transfer all your files and
documents would be to use a CD-R drive to
burn them onto a few CDs, and then sim-
ply copy them from the CD onto the hard
drive of your new computer. There are a
great many archival and backup utilities
out there, but if you're moving to a new
operating system and a clean slate, they're
not always best for the task. If you want to
save items from your email program, use
its “export” feature. You're going to have to
re-install your programs on the new com-
puter, but almost all of them should work
fine: the money you've invested in your
software won't go to waste.
Is it beneficial these daus with an
operating system such as Windows
XP to reboot after playing a large game
such as Soldier Of Fortune Il, before 1
start a session of lets say, Civilization III? |
Faster graphics memory with GDDR-3 — The problem
with using traditional graphics technologies like DDR
and DDR-2 for graphics chips is that they're developed
with general computing needs in mind. The JEDEC, the
committee that ratifies these standards, also moves too
slowly for a graphics industry that wants to put out new
product twice a year. So it looks like the graphics guys
are doing their own thing now. ATI recently announced
that, along with the world's leading DRAM vendors and
with input from other graphics vendors, it has complet-
ed the third DDR specification, called GDDR-3.
Traditional DDR provides clock speeds up to about
400MHz, and GDDR-3 will start out at about 500MHz
and scale up to 800MHz (we're talking "DDR" speeds
here). In that regard it's similar to DDR-2, which we'll
see in graphics cards pretty soon now and in systems
late in 2003. But there are a few differences in the
< HARDWARE
am hoping that rebooting after each gam-
ing session is a thing of the past and | can
finally let go of the habit.
Alan T.
A e Windows XP does a pretty good job
e of clearing out the memory a pro-
gram uses when it quits, even in many of
the cases of poorly-behaved programs that
have memory leaks or other problems.
There's very little benefit to rebooting after
each gaming session. I personally leave my
Windows XP computer at home running
for weeks on end without rebooting.
| want to upgrade to Windows XP,
but Гуе heard many people com-
plaining they cant view Java web sites and
a few others. Is there a way of installing
Windows XP without IE 6? Also, can IE 5.5
work with Win XP? | visit a lot of Java
enabled sites, and | don't want to install
an OS that won't permit me to view certain
web sites.
Fred
A: Well, there's Java and there's
e JavaScript. JavaScript is far more
common, and it works just fine with IE 6.
There's no way I know of to install
Windows XP without IE 6 or to “down-
grade" to IE 5.5, but don't worry. All you
have to do to run Java programs in IE 6 is
go to Sun's website at java.sun.com and
download its own Java Virtual Machine.
two technologies. GDDR-3 will use single-ended, uni-
directional strobe that separates the reads and writes.
DDR-2, by contrast, uses differential bi-directional
strobes. It also uses a "pseudo-open drain" interface
technique that is based on voltage rather than current,
which makes it possible for graph
ics chips to be made that are com-
patible with DDR, DDR-2, and
GDDR-3. All this technical mumbo-
jumbo means that GDDR-3 is better suited for the
kinds of point-to-point connections where a graphics
chip talks directly to RAM, rather than going through a
bus (as DDR and DDR-2 is optimized for). In contrast
to DDR-2, the new memory type should more cheaply
scale to higher frequencies and use a little less power
as well, a benefit to laptops. We'll probably see graph-
ics cards using GDDR-3 late in 2003
WWW.CGONLINE.COM 67
HARDWARE >
68
GOING
1 Zl
WITH PRICES FALLING AND
QUALITY RISING, IT MIGHT BE
If television
and movies are to
be believed, just about
everyone in the world has a
three-inch-deep liquid crystal dis-
play (LCD) flat-panel monitor. But TV and
movies are big fat liars-they use LCD monitors
because they look great and are a lot easier to
schlep around the set. Most of the world still uses big
bulky CRT monitors, which weigh five to ten times as much
and use at least twice the electricity as an LCD. Flat-panel
monitors have other benefits: they're far crisper than most
CRTs and they don’t draw the screen in horizontal scan lines
linked to a refresh rate but rather draw the whole screen at
once at a locked rate of 60Hz, effectively eliminating any and
all flickering. And when an LCD monitor says it's 17 inches, it's
all picture from edge to edge, unlike tube monitors that have a
tube size and a “viewable area” an inch or two shorter. A 17
or 18” LCD has the same screen size as a 19” CRT.
With all the apparent benefits of flat-panel monitors, why not
make the switch? For starters, they're still about twice as expen-
sive as a good CRT. What's more, there are still some visual quali-
ty issues, especially where games are concerned [see sidebar].
Whether or not these problems bother you enough to steer you
from the benefits of an LCD is a matter of personal taste, but if
CGM | DECEMBER 2002
TIME TO DITCH THAT
TUBE MONITOR AND GO
WITH ST YLISHLY
THIN LCD
by Jason Cross
you're ready to take the plunge, we're here to help.
When looking at a flat-panel monitor, the specs are definite-
ly important, but if you ask LCD experts what they feel is
important, the response is unanimous: trust your eyes, not the
numbers. Resolution is important in the context of making
images scale better, but so is the quality of the monitor's scal-
ing circuitry. The monitor should have uniform lighting
throughout with no bright or dark patches. Whites should be
white instead of having a colored tinge, and blacks should be
very black and not dark gray. Pixel response time is crucial. Is
it a sleek piece of kit that will make your friends and cowork-
ers jealous, or is it a thin, flat eyesore? Does it have a video
input for a TV or game console, and how about a USB hub?
Many factors go into choosing an LCD monitor, and the best
thing you can do is try before you buy.
HERCULES PROPHETVIEW 920
The big brother to last year's 15" Hercules LCD monitor is the ProphetView 920, a 17" model that
shares its younger sibling's sleek styling. It's an extremely slim display, taking up even less desk
space than most, and its metallic blue exterior adds a splash of color without distracting. The
monitor looks pretty good using the standard DVI hookup (a DVI to VGA adaptor is included),
but the lighting isn't entirely even. The image gets slightly darker toward the top of the
screen, and we had a hard time adjusting the colors to give us both nice dark blacks and
accurate bright colors at the same time, though the on-screen display controls are quite good.
The fast response time makes this one of one of the better game-playing monitors, with blurring
in fast-action games apparent but minimal. The ProphetView 920 is slim on amenities: there's no
telescoping stand, no USB hub, no speakers. The composite video input is a nice touch, but we couldn't 4
get a crisp and stable picture, so it's not going to make your
Xbox or PS2 shine.
PHILIPS BRILLIANCE
180P2
Sometimes a monitor tries to be all things to
all people and ends up being nothing to anyone.
Such is the case with the Brilliance 180P2, a large
18" display with what Philips refers to as a "multimedia
base," their fancy way of saying "speakers and microphone." The sound quality is
poor enough that you wouldn't want to use them, and they're so close together that
it kills stereo separation. There are two inputs, both analog VGA and digital DVI, but
no s-video or composite video input, which is a shame considering the multimedia
base. Perhaps it's just as well, because the image quality isn’t very good. The panel
just couldn't seem to lock in on the signal from our video card very well, resulting in
odd two-inch-wide bands of alternating sharpness and blurriness when viewing desk-
top graphics. Endlessly playing with the phase lock controls just couldn't quite make
it go away. Gray levels could be better, and the scaler is only average-you'd want to
Stick to the native resolution if at all possible.
PHILIPS 150MT
The smaller of the two Philips displays
here is far more interesting, but just as hard to recommend. The 150MT is a pretty small
monitor at only 15", with a meager resolution of 1024x768. It's very bright with good con-
trast and a zippy response time, but image quality is marred by slightly uneven lighting
and at a native resolution this low, no scaling technology in the world is going to keep the
screen from turing into a blurry mess when running at 640x480 or 800x600. Input is
only through a VGA connector-there's no DVI. While the screen itself doesn't impress, the
bonus features are worth crowing about. There's both composite and s-video input, plus
full-on YUV component input to get the most from your DVD player or game console.
There's even a cable-ready TV tuner and a handy remote control so you can watch the
boob tube without running up to your desk to flip the channels. Philips even thought to
include line output and headphone jacks on the side. It’s a shame to see so many great
features paired with a small, low-res screen with slightly uneven lighting. It's even worse
to ask an astounding $900 for it, almost as much as much larger 18” panels.
| *
WWW.CGONLINE.COM
69
HARDWARE »
BENO FP2081
The lord and master of this roundup is undoubtedly BenQ's FP2081. This giant 20” screen absolutely dominates your
desk without taking up an obscene amount of space. The wide border is a little bit of an eyesore, but you get over it
quickly when you see how good the screen looks. Blacks are black, whites are white, and colors are vibrant and accu-
rate. The quality scaler combined with a native resolution of 1600x1200 makes text and images look good at almost
any resolution. The 25ms response time delivers games that, while not as clean as a CRT, were some of the
sharpest seen on an LCD. The on-screen display controls are great, even including picture in picture,
and though there's no phase lock adjustment, in all our tests the FP2081 never needed any tweaking
at all. It even gave us a perfectly jitter-free picture when we plugged an Xbox into
the S-Video input (composite video input is there as well). The price is definitely
steep, almost twice as much as most 19” monitors, but this is an envy-inducing
monitor if there ever was one, and if you have the means, it’s worth it.
Computer
mes
CHOICE
CTX SV900MD
This 19” monitor is an odd mix of
good and bad. The image quality
is generally pretty good, with nice
even lighting, good lights and darks,
and a sharp, stable picture. But this
— . маз the only monitor of the bunch that
— аы, - doesn't appear to have its own scaler, as the
"ERES a option to use the monitor’s scaler was grayed out
and we could only use the video card’s, which is slightly infe-
rior to most of those built into the monitors. The built-in speakers are placed far
PLANAR PL191M
In almost every way, shape, and ан ыа cotes micas ЫЫ uds НЯ
form, this is the CTX SVSOOMD. The panel and DVI ports are both available as well as a nice two-port USB port. There was mini-
mal blurring in games, confirming the listed 25ms response time, but scrolling web
pages with.colored text and backgrounds created odd flickering artifacts at times.
Overall quality is still pretty high and the price isn't bad for a 19" display.
is exactly the same, with the same USB hub, \бА and
DVI inputs, speakers, and controls. The on-screen display is identical. The performance
is the same, both on paper and in real-world tests. The only real difference is its looks:
while both CTX and Planar have models available in both white and black, the styling of
Planar's case is slightly more appealing.
* ж Жж Ж
Жж Жж Ж
уу CGM | DECEMBER 2002 |
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ESR eserved, Al RightsReserved. Ай other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners Manufactured үлене *
< Ре. v.g. i P
HARDWARE »
LCDS EXPLAINED
Everything you always wanted to know
...but were afraid to ask
Just when you though you have got a grip on monitor technology-dot
pitch and all that-they go and change everything. LCDs are fundamental-
ly different from standard tube monitors (CRTs) and are described by a
different set of measurements. Here's the lowdown on what it all means
and whether or not it's important.
Brightness Also called /uminance, it's how much light a monitor
puts out and is measured in candelas per square meter, abbreviated
cd/m? and commonly called "nits." If your room is a dark cave, a low
nits rating won't hurt you, but look for a high rating-at least 250-if the
monitor is used in a well-lit area.
Contrast Ratio Described as some sort of "to one" ratio, like
"three hundred to one" (300:1), it represents the difference in bright-
ness between the brightest brights and the darkest darks. It's not
important anymore, as all modern LCDs have perfectly good contrast
and their anti-glare coatings make the differences mostly irrelevant.
Viewing Angle Another statistic you can ignore. In most cases,
it's good enough not to make any difference unless you regularly crowd
four people around your computer monitor. If that’s the case, look for a
horizontal viewing angle of at least 160°.
ое о 25g
мазен A) neto: wmm conne comico 2002 10-1 hmi
зиф Poorte @ мез © D-a
Computer
m t * теш clubhouse turn. Plus: Th
А slow pixel response rate means more blurring in games
Pixel Response А CRT can change the color of a pixel almost instantaneously, but the
individual pixels of an LCD take a lot longer to change, and this is the pixel response rate (often just
called response time or response rate). This is listed in milliseconds, and sometimes even separated
into the “rise” time (how long it takes to make the pixel bright) and the “fall” time (how long to
make it dark again). The catch is, they measure the time to go from full brightness to full darkness,
which is actually faster than the time to go from partially bright to partially dark. So if a monitor
says it has a pixel response time of 35ms, it takes 35 milliseconds to go from black to white and
back again, but it would take even longer for it to go from, say, dark purple to lighter purple. This
means that when something moves across the screen there’s a little blurring trail as the pixels fade
away in the previous location. The better the response rate, the less noticeable this smearing effect
is. The best LCDs have a combined rise and fall time of about 25ms. There are 1000ms in a second,
this means the pixels change about 40 times a second under ideal conditions. The very best desktop
LCDs still create a bit of a smearing effect with games that you won't see on even the cheapest
modern CRTs. This is biggest downside to gaming with an LCD so you'll want to get it as low as
possible. Anything under 35ms will work fine for watching movies, but for games, go as low as you
can afford. If you want to test pixel response rate on a monitor in a store, load up a web page with
lots of colored text on a colored background, grab the
title bar, and move it around the screen a bit. You'll get
a good idea of the blurring you'll see in games. e
The Latest MUD Runner
Watch Asheron's Call 2 d
as it leaves the rest of
massively multiplayer ga
Resolution Unlike CRTs, LCD moni-
1 tors have one resolution, referred to as its
native resolution. \f your monitor has a res-
olution of 1280x1024, then displaying your
>
( un КЫЙ Gi, OCTOBER 2002 ISSUE
| = — on sale SEPTEMBER 9,
es чыр t» ET 2002
desktop or games at 1280x1024 look very
sharp. If you run at 1024x768, the image
will have to be scaled up to 1280x1024 to
fill the screen, which makes things look
2 blurry. Just how blurry is dependant on the
quality of the sca/er in the monitor or video
card, but the higher the LCD panel's reso-
lution, the smaller the pixels and therefore
the less noticeable the blurring.
The Latest MUD Runner
Watch Asheron's Call 2 g
as it leaves the rest of t
massively multiplayer ga
clubhouse turn. Plus: Th
the rest of the current û
The price is only $1.00
for each issue remaining
оп your current
subscription. Use your
credit card and сай toll-
1-800-283-3542.
ТУ online gaming than you can
SOO TMEV
possibly swallow
by Cindy Yons
Even
The Business of Terrorism .
Game publishers continue to react and release games a year after September 11th o renewals
by John Callaham „еш
The Latest MUD Runner
Watch Asheron's Call 2 g
as it leaves the rest of t
_| massively multiplayer ga
clubhouse turn. Plus: Th
the rest of the current o
This is Your Brain on Games
Study claims videogames cause permanent brain damage
by Kyle Ackerman
=.
a back issue.
Call 1-800-699-4263.
1) A 1024x768 screen at native resolution 2)....scaled up
to 1280x1024 3)...and scaled up to 1600x1200
72 CGM | DECEMBER 2002
" courtesy of Monolith Productions, Inc.
CATE ARCHER from “No One Lives Forever™ 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.'s Way"
Don't hold your games back.
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HARDWARE »
SONY SDM-V72W
Sony's new widescreen entertainment monitor is something of a curiosity. A 17" monitor with
input options galore (s-video,
composite, YUV component, VGA, and audio) the big deal here is that it's a widescreen monitor with a resolu-
tion of 1280x768. That's the good news, but it's also the bad news. The resolution and YUV input make
it ideal for HDTV input, and it's nice to watch DVDs or play widescreen-enabled games with it and
the extra desktop space is nice, but at 17" it's a little small for "sit back" entertainment like
movies. Worse, since most games don't support widescreen modes, using the 1024x768 dis-
play mode effectively gives you a 14.7" display. The paper specs list a response time slightly
faster than anything else-22ms-but while the blurring was minimal, it wasn't noticeably
better than most 25ms screens. The speakers are decent as built-in fare go, and the svelte
remote and slick on-screen menus are nice touches. This is a monitor we really want to love,
but the $1,000 price and limited size get in the way.
TO LCD OR NOT TO LCD?
If we were to pick just one of the LCD monitors tested here to keep on our desks for
the next few years, it would be the BenQ FP2081. The image quality and response
time are just too good, and that huge 20” screen is to die for. But truth be told,
we're pretty happy sticking with a good CRT for the time being. Sure they're bulky
and the image isn’t quite as sharp as a good LCD running at its native resolution, but
even the world’s best LCD creates a smearing effect in games due to the relatively
slow response times.
In the near-term, there doesn’t appear to be much effort involved in improving the
LCD's shortcomings, as manufacturers instead focus on lowering prices. But further
Screen Size Resolution
cr x SV900MD б 19" 1280x1024
BenQ FP2081 20.1" 1600x1200
Hercules ProphetView 920 17” 1280x1024
Philips Brilliance 180P2 18.1” 1280x1024
Philips 150MT 15" 1024x768
Planar PL191M тэ” 1280x1024
Sony SDM-V72W 1280x768
(wide screen)
75 CGM | DECEMBER 2002
out, perhaps 18 months away, is a new technology called Organic LED, which should
be cheaper to manufacture, are brighter, sharper, thinner, consume less power, and
best of all, have response times up to a thousand times faster than most LCDs. Don't
hold your breath waiting for them to arrive just yet, though. The first OLED devices
will be cell phones and small handhelds, followed by a few laptops, and ultimately
desktop displays, and it'll be at least a couple years before they're commonplace.
In the meantime, if you're in the market for a new monitor or buying a new com-
puter with one, maybe a space and energy-saving LCD is the thing for you. You'll
have to shop carefully to find one that won't impair your gaming, but the benefits
might be worth the effort and extra cost. e
Brightness Contrast Pixel Ног. Price
reponse viewing angle
170° $999
160° $1840
150° $749
160° $1099
$899
$950
$999
MAKE A KILLING.
WELCOME TO THE BUSINESS OF DESTRUCTION.
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HARDWARE »
HOTAS Cougar
Did Thrustmaster chop this out of
an F-16? This is heavy metal!
Xo kK KY
MANUFACTURER Thrustmaster
(www.thrustmaster.com) MSRP $299.00
OK, so you might never
actually find yourself in a
real cockpit of an F-16 but
the HOTAS Cougar from
Thrustmaster is the very
EDITOR'S next best thing. Based on
CHOICE the plane's block 52 stick
and throttle controller, this is no mere joy-
stick. It has s a full metal casing of both the
flight control stick and throttle and together
these carry some real weight. There are 28
programmable buttons spread across the
two units; multiple hat switches and even
an 18-pound spring for solid resistance.
None of this would mean much if it
didn't delivered the goods when you're
taking to the virtual skies but the HOTAS
Cougar is one impressive bad boy of a
stick and it doesn't get much better. With
its Foxy programming software and
numerous pre-sets for key flight simula-
tions, it's like a workhorse for most mod-
ern day flight simulations. The downside
is that it's overkill for period games set
during World War I, World War II or
Korea almost to the point of being utterly
anarchistic with its button layout.
However, for those current-day jetsetters
this could be the last word in controllers.
Setup and connection to Windows XP is
truly simple, certainly easier than passing
airport screeners these days. It uses a full
speed USB connection and features 16K of
Ж:
Computer
76 CGM | DECEMBER 2002
internal memory to access pro-
gram settings. And while you
might never notice it, this stick
is hardware upgradeable
using Flash so you'll be
able to receive any
updates on the soft-
ware as well as
hardware side.
At $299 the
HOTAS Cougar
isn't cheap,
especially
when com-
pared to most flight
controllers and all-purpose joysticks,
but it is like a dream device for the hardcore
and faithful. It doesn't come with pedals but
it is compatible with standard analog input
devices. Considering its weight and size this
is probably best used by serious flight simu-
lation gurus because this is not something
you'll want to take out and put away a lot,
unless you think you need to hit the weights
a bit. —Peter Suciu
TrackIR GX
It might be time to look around for
a different controller
EKEN >>;
MANUFACTURER Eye Control Technologies, Inc.
[www.eyecontrol.com] MSRP $129.00
One thing that has been missing from
first-person shooters and even flight simu-
lations is that sense of fast movement that
kind of disrupts your field of view. Games
don't simulate it well because even
if you make a quick jerk
on the mouse the
experience is more
like a quick move
of a camera than a
turn of your head.
Now there is a
game controller
that actually comes
close to recreating the
natural movement of your
head - but so far the results
don't impress.
Eye Control Technologies,
Inc. has
к
REVIEW
introduced a gaming controller meant to
replace the mouse by using a camera to
track the movement of your head. The
trackIR GX was originally developed as
device for people with physical disabilities
and the company believes it could be a
viable mouse alternative. The results vary so
significantly that the final judgment is still
out, but from initial trials with first-person
shooters and flight simulations—the intend-
ed target genres—this game controller sim-
ply lacks control.
The biggest problem is that this camera
device must sit on top of your monitor while
you wear some sort of simple sensor, which
is little more than a stick-on dot. If you're
not one to wear glasses or a cap then you're
stuck with a dot on your forehead. The
tracking for simple tasks like navigating the
Windows desktop is reasonable but it only
moves the cursor and leaves the clicking to
other hotkeys. There are an additional 17
possible head positions to replicate these
keys as well but that essentially requires
learning a new skill to use properly.
In games, especially first-person shooters,
you are meant to keep your head perfectly
still until you choose to make a movement.
Nod or shake your head in reaction to some-
thing on the screen and your onscreen view
suddenly changes. Far too often in games
like Day of Defeat and Medal of Honor, you
have to nod up or down to re-center your
view. The results are better with flight simu-
lations but mostly because a mouse is pretty
much a secondary controller, taking a back-
seat to the joystick and pedals.
The trackIR seems like an ideal way of
allowing gamers who have lost the use of
their arm(s) to play, but overall this is not a
controller that will give you a gaming edge
if you have mastered a
mouse and key-
board combina-
tion. —PS
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world with this superb sequel
by Steve Bauman
GENRE Spy Action
DEVELOPER Monolith [www.lith.com] PUBLISHER Fox
Interactive/Sierra [www.foxinteractive.com/ www.sierra.com]
REQUIREMENTS Pentium Ill 500, 128МВ RAM MULTIPLAYER
2-4 players; Internet, LAN ESRB Mature
Ж:
Computer
EDITOR'S
CHOICE
When you’ve built a franchise
around a single dominant element,
sequels present a unique challenge.
If you’re Men in Black II, you lose
the coolness of discovering the
unexpected ways aliens integrate
with normal society, leaving you
with nothing to do but revisit the
same places with decidedly mixed
results. If you’re the next Austin Powers movie,
you’ve exhausted all the time-traveling culture clash
kitsch possible so you toss in more urine, poop, fart,
and sexual references than a John Waters movie. If
you’re No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.’s
Way, with its groovy 60s spy setting and strong
female lead, you slow down and deepen the game-
play of the original while retaining and expanding
the elements people loved. In other words, you make
an already superb game even better.
This isn’t too much of a surprise. Unlike movies,
games sequels are almost always superior, if only
CGM | DECEMBER 2002
This is definitely a game with character(s). The Lithtech engine’s superb facial animation brings the cut scenes to vivid life.
No One Lives Forever 2:
А Spy in H.A.R.M.’s Way
Nobody does it better: Monolith is at the top of the gaming
technologically, to their predeces-
sors. Besides, developer Monolith is
on a roll, with the original No One
Lives Forever, Aliens Versus Predator
2, plus the upcoming Tron 2.0 and
Matrix online game. A Spy in
H.A.R.M.’s Way takes the original’s
setting and polishes the hell out of
everything. The gameplay, a mix-
ture of pure gun-toting action and
cool, stealthy spying, is refined to
near-perfection, with a simple skill system that gives you obvious, tangible feed-
back that you’re becoming a better spy. It’s full of cool gadgets, clever humor,
and superb pacing that makes it feel like a comedic role-playing/adventure/action
hybrid, a sort of Deus Powers. The single-player game offers the kinds of memo-
rable moments the original is famous for, and there’s also a simple co-operative
multiplayer game for up to four players that lets your take on subsets of the sin-
gle-player missions. It’s entertaining the first few times but loses steam quickly;
however, it in no way diminishes the impact of what is a superb overall game.
Cate Archer, super spy
Once again, you take control of the British super spy Cate Archer, now voiced
superbly by Jen Taylor instead of Kit Harris, as she battles the nefarious
H.A.R.M. and tries to uncover the meaning behind something called “Project
Omega.” Though you’re no closer to finding out just what H.A.R.M. actually
stands for (you can uncover its mission statement and marketing problems),
you do face off against some familiar and not-so familiar foes: Dmitri Volkov,
Magnus Armstrong, a new director of H.A.R.M. with a serious mother complex,
and Isako the ninja. After facing off against entire levels full of mimes, particu-
larly ones that speak in outrageous French accents and tend to run away like
they're riding a pony, it’s hard to imagine why we've been deprived of killing
them for so many years.
As Cate tries to diffuse a taut situation between the Russians and the US, she
finds herself traveling to exotic places, meeting interesting people, and generally
killing them in all sorts of sneaky ways. There are levels set in Japan, India,
Siberia, and H.A.R.M.'s needlessly complex undersea and underground lairs (in
the latter, you'll finally uncover the why and how of lava). In a slightly windy
Akron, Ohio, you get to search through Tom Goodman's bachelor pad, giving you
tons of insight into his character (just check out the door to his "secret" spy area).
Extraordinary * * * * * Excellent * * * *
Maybe ж ж ж
Mediocre ж ж Contemptible *
[top] Your mascara сап come in handy in a tight pinch. >>> [bottom] If you can't kill ‘em,
crack 'em up! The level in India lets you really use some of Cate's weirder arsenal.
Spuing for fun
Along the way, you uncover bits and pieces of the story from various H.A.R.M.
internal memos (they need a better document destruction policy) and the over-
heard conversations of the various talkative guards and henchmen. But mostly
you watch a lot of superbly produced cut scenes. In the original game, as clever
and well-written as they were, these tended to be interminably long. For A Spy
in H.A.R.M.’s Way, they’ve been tightened and shortened, so much so in fact
that it’s hard not to wish they were a little longer. They range from funny to
downright surreal, such as the scene that plays out in the “Endgame.” It
involves game shows and square people... you really need to see it to believe it.
If the plot and settings don’t quite reach the zippy highs of the original, it’s
certainly not the fault of the game but a case of our own raised expectations. It’s
all pretty damn amusing, if not downright funny, with marketing weasels every-
where taking a lion’s share of hits. With almost every other action game being
full of macho blustering and dark colors supposedly making them all intense
and scary, it’s practically radical for this game to be bright and shiny and, well,
sometimes girly.
Paranoia and Spying in the House of Games
Deus Ex
RATING ЖЖЖ *
Our Word "When it's all done, you might even find you
again, just to build a different J.C. Denton and tackle things diff
In Cold Blood
RATING Ж ЖЖЖ
Our Word "Its mix of classic adventure-style gameplay, intrigu
ing storyline, logical puzzles and just a touch of action make it a
topnotch choice for fans of thought-inducing gameplay
Majestic
RATING Ж Ж
Our Word "...most of the game is earnest, limp, and slow. The
truth is out there, but in this case, it's not really worth finding
The Messenger
RATING Ж Жж Ж
Our Word "...it is aimed at the adventure purist who is willing to
scan and shuffle without complaint... waging intellectual war
against the forces of evil.’
Metal Gear Solid
RATING Ж ЖЖ
Our Word "[It] may have been one of the first games to blaze the
'stealthy action' trail, but more recent PC offerings have done it
better, which leaves this port showing its age."
No One Lives Forever
RATING ^ ЖЖЖЖ
Our Word "It's the absolute antithesis of every hackneyed blast-
a-thon... no other shooter has come as close to living up to our
raised expectations for the genre."
Sanity: Aiken's Artifact
RATING Ж Ж Ж
Out Word "If you are entertained by style alone, this game may be
right up your alley. If you also want truly challenging puzzles and
combat that rewards creativity, you may be a bit disappointed."
Spucraft: The Great Game
RATING ^» ЖЖЖ
Our Word: "[It's] like nothing else you have ever tried. ... if
you're not already paranoid, [it] will guarantee sleepless nights."
Traitors Gate
RATING Ж ж Ж
Out Word "There's a lot to like in the way the world is built with емегу-
thing inter-connecting, and the tools you must make use of in order to
proceed... but there are too many flaws that detract from the fun."
REVIEWS »
^ 80
The spy they love
The camera, and the 3D artists, love Cate Archer. She
has better hair than any other character in gaming,
and her outfits are incredibly posh. She's fun and sexy
because she feels like a truly three-dimensional char-
acter rather than a caricature. The attention lavished
on her in cutscenes is astounding. She comes alive, as
do all of the other characters, because the Lithtech
engine allows a full range of facial expressions. The
sheer number of animations, eye-rollings, and gestures
makes it appear that Cate Archer isn't just a 3D char-
acter animation, but an actor giving a performance.
The environments are equally impressive. When
discussing graphics, people get hung up on polygon
counts and texture resolution, focusing on the
mechanical method of creating the look while essen-
tially ignoring its most important element, the overall
art direction. Even if the graphic engine wasn't up to
par in the game—and the "Jupiter" version of Lithtech
is phenomenal, better looking and faster than its pre-
decessors—it would still be a beautiful game. It's full
of amazing little details—stop and laugh at some of
the bizarre signage and strange objects—and its
adherence to that bizarre 60s aesthetic makes the
graphics of the supposedly more technically sophisti-
cated but grotesquely cartoonish Unreal Tournament
2003 look like the notebook scribblings of fantasy/sci-
fi novel art-obsessed 15-year olds.
The audio is equally distinctive. Unlike the
warmed-over metal or industrial retreads seen in every
other action game, the soundtrack is full of appropri-
ate ethnic motifs for each environment, though played
with appropriate 60s instrumentation. It's more
Esquivel! than Reznor—instead of grinding guitars or
pounding synthesizers, you get a lovely Theremin in
the underwater lair, some extremely cool Indian and
Japanese motifs, and something disturbingly reminis-
cent of the theme from Elevator Action in Siberia.
Spy games
All the presentation in the world doesn’t compensate
for weak gameplay, but once again Monolith hits the
target. It makes perfect sense for a spy game to
emphasize stealth, and if the original was too unfor-
giving and lacked some of the basic tools of stealth,
like leaning around corners, A Spy in H.A.R.M.’s
Way pulls off the trick of making it equally satisfying
to either blast or sneak your way through each level.
You’re rewarded more with the latter approach, as it
allows you to soak in more of the guard dialogues
that add so much flavor to the game.
Creeping around also gives you more chances to
observe the excellent AI. In some ways, it’s actually
dumber; for playability reasons, it tends to investigate
various noises with less urgency or certainty and has a
very short memory, often giving up the chase (or in
the case of the Indian officers, keeling over to catch
their breath because they’re out of shape). You can
knock over bottles and make noise—unintentionally or
not—and they’ll immediately investigate, but just as
CGM | DECEMBER 2002
quickly break off the search. You can unscrew lights to darken rooms and keep
the AI from turning the light back on and discovering you. Unlike the first game,
all alarms are localized, keeping your occasional slip-ups from becoming large-
scale problems. It’s the first 3D game since Thief II to make stealth entertaining,
and it’s considerably more forgiving than Looking Glass’ game, because in a
pinch, you can always just blast your way out of a level.
Monolith also improves on the exploration-aspect (i.e. “adventuring”) of the
genre by rewarding you for discovering bonus objects and completing sec-
ondary objectives. You can spend the points you accumulate for completing
tasks and finding objects on improving various attributes, like stealth, search-
ing, carrying, etc. While the first game had a similar system, it was hidden well
enough that that no one
noticed or cared about it.
Every skill improvement is
now obvious and drastic,
proving even more motiva-
tion and reward for improv-
ing Cate and exploring the
environments. The tweaks
let you tailor the game more
to your style of play.
The superb interface fea-
tures minor changes that
strip away the tedious parts
of your typical 3D action
game. There are simple little
things, such as the “Action”
button automatically reload-
ing your weapon when it’s
not engaged in some action,
and more complex ones, such
as automatically switching to
the best tools for a given job.
Monolith alone seems to realize that it’s a lot more fun to decode messages and
pick locks than to constantly switch between your weapon and your decoder or
lockpick. When you do change weapons and/or tools, you get to experience what
have to be the best putting-things-away and taking-things-out animations ever.
Armed with her mighty banana, Cate Archer takes on
evil in all of its forms.
The spy we love
It’s little details like an inconsequential animation that make this such a special
game. And when you compare the output of all of the companies producing 3D
shooters nowadays, a game as vibrant and alive as A Spy in H.A.R.M.’s Way
exposes how creatively bankrupt the others are. They all produce safe, attrac-
tive, and competent shooters, but their games are completely predictable. Their
macho bluster keeps them from giving off any sense that they’re slightly
unhinged—it’s impossible to imagine anything as surreal as the “Man Handler”
scene appearing in anyone else’s shooter. Too many developers equate dark
and dreary with serious and tension-filled. There’s more tension and action
sneaking around one level of Cate Archer’s candy-colored world than there is in
the entire Solider of Fortune series or in something like Max Payne.
No one does this kind of game better than Monolith at this point, and no
game released thus far this year is as good as No One Lives Forever 2.
UPSIDE Improves on the original in every way imaginable, beautiful looking, superb
production values throughout, seriously fun in a very non-serious way
DOWNSIDE Ends too soon, multiplayer sounds better on paper, sound and crash
problems on some machines
RATING Ж ж Ж Ж Ж
Fron n the maker: of the ward wi П] 11] 14 ` Euro pa Uni ver:
Hearts of Iron, the first WWII game of grand strategic scope, covers the war from 1936 -1947 and lets
you control and conquer any country in the world. Assign political leaders and promote generals as you
struggle against the great alliances of the new world orders of Fascism, Communism and Democracy!
* EVERYONE
© хе иы ы чы йым ы мы» crus
Bo Violence
©2002 Strategy First Inc. All rights reserved. Hearts of Iron is a trademark of Paradox Entertainment AB. All
pa radox ˆ rights reserved. All other trademarks and copyrights are the properties of their respective owners. es RE
82
GENRE First-person WWE Shooter DEVELOPER Digital Extremes/Epic Games
[www.digitalextremes.com/www.epicgames.com] PUBLISHER Infogrames
[www.infogrames.com REQUIREMENTS Pentium Ill 733, 128MB RAM
MULTIPLAYER 2-32 players; Internet, LAN ESRB Mature
Dude. Die, bitch! Ownage! Unreal Tournament 2003 rocks. It rawks! Don't
forget to turn the safety ofí! To read this review, you have to say everything in
bold face as if you were announcing a monster truck rally on Tuesday night.
Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday!
Now try it again: Unreal
Tournament 2003 really rocks!
Dude, that's better.
It's righteous. It's absolutely
bad ass. Aíter you capture the
by Tom Chick
flag, you can press a key to smack
your own ass. How wicked sick is
that? Monster kill! When you're
doing really good, Unreal
Tournament 2003 even says “holy
shit!” Out loud! It cusses, something
they don’t do so much since
Kingpin. Kingpin! Dude, don’t let
your Mom hear.
This faux-pro-wrestling over-the-
top piercing shrillmanship stuff is
all up in your face. You can’t even
pick your character model without
the announcer bellowing its name. Cannonball! Subversa! Widowmaker!
Brutalis! Badass gladiators, all! When was the last time a game’s shell screen
had you reaching for the volume button? Hat trick! Thirty Seconds! Multi
Kill! Holy shit!
out, wicked sick!
Talking smack
It’s exhausting, embarrassing, exasperating, and maybe even irrelevant. But it
highlights that even as games get more advanced, they can be as juvenile as
ever. Unreal Tournament 2003 will not stop reminding you that it’s as cool as
stuff like Vin Diesel, the WWE, and Limp Bizkit, which you can take to mean
whatever it means to you. This would be a non-issue if the game weren’t so
CGM | DECEMBER 2002
[left] These levels rock, for serious! [above teft] These guys are righteous bad-asses! [above right] Dude, check it
slathered in this overbearing sensibility.
It’s not just the high school smack talk. It’s the gra-
tuitous bone-crunching sound effects, like snapping
stalks of celery, as a body is blown backwards. It’s the
limb-jangling rag doll physics wracking a corpse as it
plummets down a pit and bangs off the bars of a
series of grates placed for no reason other than to
show off the rag doll physics. It’s the blood spraying,
the de-limbed torsos, and the headless corpses with
flames where their heads were before they got sniped
clean off. It’s the supremacy of twitch action, the
ultra-fast default game speed, the new double jump-
ing, the new wall bouncing, and the new adrenaline
combo power-up boosters like tap-tap-taptap, tap-tap-
tap-tap, or tap-tap-taptap. It’s the tutorial explaining
that “it is in your best interest to hop as much as pos-
sible” and the jump boots being replaced with shim-
mering jump pads built into the level design. It’s no
thigh pads and no shield belts, but big fat obvious
glowing orange shield icons spinning around. It’s the
Unreal Tournament 2003
| The day the magic died... but at least it died a beautiful death
weapons tuned and balanced so thoroughly that victo-
ry can only be decided by the raw skill and reflexes
that shut out newbies, who will get their asses kicked
until they learn to like it, get better, or quit playing
like a bunch of panty waist bitches who can go
offline, turn down the speed, switch off dodging and
adrenaline, and dial down the bots a notch or two if
they want, but stay the hell off the servers unless they
wanna be lunch meat for your clan.
Here is first-person hyperaction, an unsophisticat-
ed and complex groove of killing and being killed as
tavy attack in
[above] This guy is about to smack his own ass, no joke!
pumped up as a power mad thirteen-year-old on a
sugar jag. As other shooters grow up and grapple
with words like realism and storyline and preten-
sions like mise en scéne and sly humor, here we
have an unrepentant throwback to the simple need
for speed. It's been out of fashion for a while, but it's
back like the reincarnation of id's Quake III. This is
the second time the developers at Epic have trumped
their counterparts at id. The first time was back in
1999 when both Quake III and Unreal Tournament
were released. Unreal Tournament was the far supe-
rior product on so many levels: aesthetics, variety,
depth, accessibility, innovation, flexibility, and what-
ever people meant by broad terms like "gameplay"
and "fun". Quake III was a soulless technical marvel
that played really fast. Now Epic is trumping Quake
III again with Unreal Tournament 2003, its own soul-
less technical marvel that plays really fast.
But it's pretty
There’s no denying that it’s a state-of-the-art technical
marvel without parallel. You’ll need serious hard-
ware, since it eats CPU cycles and video memory for
breakfast and then comes back for seconds while
other games are still sipping their first cup of coffee.
There are curved surfaces and intricate detailing for
no reason other than to make you stop and say ‘look
at all those curved surfaces and all that intricate
detailing’. Are polygons so commonplace now? Is
lighting really that cheap? Does a ceiling fan really
need to cast a lazy spinning shadow on the floor?
$300 graphics card.
These graphics do manage to breathe new
life into conventions like lava, castles, and
snow (although it seems that no amount of
Epic’s lavish detail can revive the stale look
of hi-tech industrial grunge). Like Wing
Commanders and Quakes of old, this is an
upgrade-your-hardware game that’ll wring
every penny’s worth of splendor from a
But Unreal Tournament 2003 is soulless
because it’s missing so much of that sense
of discovery that made Unreal Tournament
great. You won’t find anything quite like
the thrill Epic delivered three years ago,
when you first played assault mode running
the length of a speeding train or swimming
down to an undersea base, when you fig-
ured out the shock rifle combo or flew your
first redeemer, when you played with the
virtually unlimited combos afforded by all
those mutators, and traded shots with Steve
Polge’s convincingly.
fallible bot AI.
Not that Unreal
Tournament 2003
doesn't try. The AI
is still first rate, so a
tip of the hat to Mr.
Polge. But the new
game modes con-
sists mainly of a)
everyone rushing
after one person or
b) everyone split-
ting into two
groups. There are
no trains or galleons
and in the undersea
base, the undersea
part is just window
dressing with alien
shark models swim-
ming around out
there while you're dry inside. The shock rifle combo is a feature instead of a
secret and the new Ion Painter elicits a shrug more than anything else. The
mutators read like a perfunctory list of options: low grav, big head models,
instagib, been there, done that, got all the T-shirts three years ago. It all feels like
a pod people version of Unreal Tournament. It's not that the magic is gone. It's
just not magic anymore.
DOWNSIDE
RATING
It's wicked sick Ownage of the speed freak first-person shooter
action genre!
And it won't stop reminding you
Ж Ж Ж
WWW.CGONLINE.COM
83
REVIEWS »
84
баў
Computer
EDITOR'S
CHOICE
Battlefield 1942
The new king of the multiplayer (only) shooters
by Benjamin Е. Sones
GENRE Online Shooter DEVELOPER Digital Illusions [www.dice.se] PUBLISHER
Electronic Arts [www.ea.com] REQUIREMENTS Pentium Ill 500, 128 MB RAM, 32
MB Video Card MULTIPLAYER 2-64 Players; Internet, LAN ESRB Teen
Sometimes great games take you by surprise. Such is the case with
Battlefield 1942, a game created by Digital Illusions, a little known
developer of racing sims and pinball games. Remember Motorhead?
Pinball Dreams? Barbie Groovy Games? Don't worry, no one else does
either. [Console fans may remember Rallisport Challenge for Xbox,
though. —ed] You can bet dollars to donuts that everyone will be
talking about Battlefield 1942 for years to come, because it is easily
one of the best action games this year, and possibly the best online
team-based game ever. Go figure.
If you played the wildly popular Wake Island demo that circulated
before the game's release, you're probably nodding your head. Of
course, if you played the Wake Island multiplayer demo, then you
probably already bought the game, too. As a sales pitch, it was awful-
ly convincing. The full game is even better, but it shares one thing
with the demo: it is essentially a multiplayer-only experience. Not
only that, it's one best experienced through the low-ping luxury of a
broadband connection. The documentation recommends modem users
stick to 16 player games, and that's too few players by half for many
of the maps. Of course, you can always play off-line... or not. The
game box says nothing at all about the solo campaign, and that is
probably just as well. It is terrible. Put it out of your mind.
If you fall into the “online shooter fan with broadband" category,
make no mistake this is one of the best games of the year, a perfect bal-
CGM | DECEMBER 2002
ance of fun and realism, and simple mechan-
ics with complex permutations. The World
War II setting provides a familiar backdrop
with immediately recognizable enemies, bat-
tles, and goals. You may have heard of the
long-time PC gaming pipe dream called the
"virtual battlefield." Here it is.
Did you see that?
Perhaps the most endearing feature in the
game is this: neat stuff happens. It's not the
carefully storyboarded, choreographed, and
scripted neat stuff that is the hallmark of
post-Half-Life shooters; it's the type that
comes from carefully constructing an envi-
ronment filled with tangible goals and
assorted instruments of destruction and
then setting a bunch of completely
unchoreographed players loose in it.
Carefully scripted neat stuff can be visceral
and engaging, but it is a hollow sort of
thrill that comes from having exactly the
same experience as every other player.
Remember storming Omaha Beach in
Medal of Honor? So does every other player
that picked up the game. They probably
remember it exactly as you do.
The neat stuff that happens in Battlefield
1942 is even more entertaining for its spon-
taneity. The game sets the stage but the
players create the drama. Imagine running
through the hedgerows of the Normandy
countryside. You hear the sounds of several
battles raging in the distance, and an M7
Priest is shelling tanks from the relative
safety of a nearby roadside ditch. You see a
German Engineer mining the bridge to
Carentan, and so you drop to one knee and
take him down, rush to the bridge, and
pick up the mines that he dropped. You
hear a low roar, and a group of players
swoop overhead in a B-17 bomber, heading
North on a bombing run. Two German
fighters are dogging it, and the sky erupts
in puffs of flak as another player opens fire
with an AA battery. One of the fighters
« REVIEWS
goes down in a ball of flames, hitting the
ground 40 feet away. You have a fraction
of a second to realize that the wreckage is [elockvise from right:'Sniping roosts are handy...
rolling towards you, and another to get just remember to check your back every now
out of the way. So you dive over the side and again. »»» Submarine pilot: the ultimate
of the bridge just as the fighter rolls across сотре. с nU Mou cf Dici
the spot where you
were standing in a
cloud of dust and
debris, setting off
the mines in a spec-
tacular explosion
that kills you before
you have a chance
to fall 50 feet to the
river below.
That sort of thing
happens in the
game. All the time.
muster before it loses
The spice of life the battle. You deplete
The game matches this incredible variety your enemies' tickets
of events with an equally incredible vari- by killing their soldiers
ety of content. If you get tired of or by holding objec-
hedgerows in Normandy, you can take the tives, sort of like a
helm of a Fletcher-class Destroyer in the Domination mode in
waters off Midway Island. Or battle tanks Unreal Tournament, but
and snipers in a brutal street battle amidst the objectives have intrin-
the ruins of Stalingrad. Or lead a tank col- sic value as well. Some func-
umn through the maze of canyons at tion as spawn points. Some
Gazala. Or face down deadly Tiger tanks contain caches of ammo, or med-
in the frozen countryside at the Battle of ical lockers, or vehicles. Some are
the Bulge. There is a little something for strategic chokepoints. You do not seize objectives merely to fulfill an
all manner of tastes, and if you get tired of abstract requirement for victory. You seize them because they are use-
one map you can move on to another. ful. The weak, Gamespy-powered server browser is the only real chink
You can also try out any of the five dif- in the game's online armor.
ferent “kits” (Assault, Medic, Anti-Tank,
Engineer, and Scout), each of which is use-
ful to differing degrees and in different About that solo game...
ways on each map. If you cut your chops “Now really,” you may be saying to yourself, “if the multiplayer game
playing an Assault grunt in the streets of is so wonderful, the solo game can’t be that bad, right?” Yes, it can.
Berlin, you will find that being an Engineer And it is. Honest. No, it does not make for an interesting diversion.
in Tobruk is like playing an entirely differ- No, you cannot use it for practice, even if you have a machine power-
ent game, and that is a good thing. ful enough to run it with more than a handful of bots, which you
With so many kits, maps, and vehicles, almost certainly do not. All you are missing is some of the dumbest
you might think that the game would be a AI in shooter history playing on exactly the same maps that you could
bit... overwhelming. It's not; in fact, it be playing online. Just pretend that the solo portion of the game does
does a superlative job at balancing accura- not exist. It's better that way.
cy and entertainment. It's exactly as realis- When you get right down to it, Battlefield 1942 doesn't need a solo
tic as it needs to be, and not one whit campaign. If Digital Illusions had decided to leave it out altogether,
more. The vehicles are easy to operate, this would still be a fantastic game. If you have the bandwidth to run
with simple and consistent controls. Foot it, buy this game. If you do not have enough bandwidth to run it, get
combat employs some interesting but logi- more bandwidth. Then buy this game.
cal twists, such as weapon fire that is more
accurate when you are crouching or prone.
Tying it together is the best conceived set UPSIDE The best multiplayer shooter since multiplayer shooters
of goals since Counter-strike. The highlight ЕГУ |
is "Conquest," in which each team starts
with a number of "tickets" that represent А WEISEN
RATING
the number of reinforcements that it can » db. db. db. dh.
DOWNSIDE Don't even ask about the solo game
WWW.CGONLINE.COM 85
REVIEWS »
Syberia
Let’s go adventure gaming, let’s go!
by Matthew Peckham
GENRE Adventure
DEVELOPER Microids
[www.microids.com]
PUBLISHER The Adventure
Company [www.adventurecom-
panygames.com]
REQUIREMENTS Pentium Il
350, 64 MB RAM, 3D accelerator
MULTIPLAYER None
ESRB Teen
Writers keeps trumpet-
ing the demise of « insert
genre» gaming every cou-
ple years. It's like the
industry has a two-year
sliding memory bank.
Fortunately, developers like Microids keep popping
up to prove the fair-weather pundits wrong with
games like Syberia. Old-school fans of adventure
games pay attention: this is what you've been wait-
ing for since The Longest Journey.
The game opens in a rustic European village some-
where in the French Alps. It is raining. A wind-up
drummer stutters along, frowning, leading a bizarre
funeral procession up a cobblestone street. In the
background, a lone violin plays a mournful dirge. A
horse-drawn carriage passes, piloted by a hunching,
silvery figure: Mechanical men in ties and trench
coats follow, taking lurching steps, not quite in lock-
; step, sporting top hats and umbrellas. From the get-
go, you know things are not going to play out on the
straight and narrow.
You assume the role of perky Kate Walker, an
attorney for the New York law firm Marson and
Lormont Associates. Your firm has sent you to
Valadiléne—an alpine village in France, home of the
Voralberg Toy Company and the “world capital of
mechanical toys and automatons"—to close a major
business deal. Voralberg toys have been around since
the 13th century, but over the past decade or so have
fallen out of demand due to the rise of electronic
forms of entertainment (like, ha ha, video games).
Now a multinational company wants to buy
Voralberg Manufacturing. But when you arrive, the
last heir and owner has died. A little investigating
turns up information that points to another possible
heir to the factory, and thus begins your real quest:
to hunt down this enigmatic figure by following a
series of clues that will lead across Europe and even-
tually to the remotest regions of Asia.
The developers have pointed out that puzzles in the
86 СОМ | DECEMBER 2002
[top right] Inside the great library of Barrockstadt. >>> [above] The
smoky city of Komkolzgrad, a veritable Stalinist paradise.
NN
УМ
\ МУЗУР ИЕ. SINE
game would buck the tradition
of Myst-style abstractness, where
playing the right tune on a key-
board might open a doorway but
leave you wondering what the
hell the keyboard was doing
there in the first place. To their
credit, this is mostly the case,
and it really lends to the sense of
accomplishment as you work
your way steadily between the
game's four primary locations. Rarely are you left wondering what to
do next, keeping you from abandoning the game for a week or a month
(or forever) because of some silly checkerboard brain teaser. The game
adds a cell phone to Kate's inventory, which is necessary to solve cer-
tain puzzles while at the same time providing for occasional interrup-
tions by friends and relatives that help flesh out Kate's raison d'etre.
The downside of super-integrated puzzles is that you will also tend
to solve them perhaps a bit too quickly, propelling yourself through
the plot at a breakneck pace and reaching the satisfying conclusion all
too quickly. In fact, what gives the game legs is also another one of
its problems—Kate’s on-screen motion. She's quite the slowpoke. It's
not a big deal at first, but you find that getting her from point-to-point
is a chore, especially given the intricacy of some of the environs, but
these are minor quibbles.
Visually, the screen is filled with images of haunting originality.
Corroded metal landscapes bleed into lush organic terrariums; delight-
fully idiosyncratic characters greet you at all points on your journey;
creaky “tik-tok” automatons shuffle along brick streets, perch over
doorways, and tip their Fred Astaire hats at you with surreal politeness.
It’s like Frank L. Baum and Fritz Lang fell into a mixing bowl some-
where and this is what rolled off the baking rack. The music is solemn
yet inspired, in the tradition of the best adventure games, blending
almost perfectly with the mood of a scene or the flavor of a moment.
Syberia is a boon for adventure gaming. While it doesn’t necessari-
ly propel the genre forward, it does capstone all the elements that
make the genre great, as well as provide plenty of reasons to sustain
it. Adventure fans or anyone partial to rare storytelling, don’t miss
this one.
Computer
Games
EDITOR'S
CHOICE
UPSIDE
Brilliant, original visuals, riveting story, and voice acting that doesn't suck
DOWNSIDE Ends too soon, Kate tends to amble around like Grandma at the
grocery store
Leod od
RATING
QUT OF GRITTY TEXTURES AND INTRICATE.
INDOOR ENVIRONMENTS: Pc скис
An e
5. AONE OF THE MORE INTERESTING
‘SHOOTERS OF THE FALL SEASON.”
| -GAMESPY
THE FACE OF WAR НА$ CHANGED
Western Germany, March 1964 - The last Great War continues to rage on. À front line divides war-torn
Europe and separates allied and enemy troops. You have been assigned the ultimate mission, which if successful,
could finally put an end to the 50-year war. Battle through 6 massive campaigns as you attempt to destroy key
military positions deep behind enemy lines.
Iron Storm will have you battling 3 in the muddy trenches of the font line, infiltrating an enemy science
complex, sweeping out sniper nests, battling onboard an enemy infested armored train, and more. The
fate of entire nations now rests solely in your hands.
'P
-
www.iron-storm.com
BLOOD AND GORE *
VIOLENCE ә о
On XY Wwanadoo = [Cj
CONTENT RATEO BY — ML ic games
ESRB ROM 4x Studio РА °
Software © 2002 4X Studio/ DreamCatcher Interactive Inc/ Wanadoo Edition. Package design © 2002 DreamCatcher Interactive Inc. GameSpy Arcade is © 1994-2002 GameSpy Industries, Ltd. The GameSpy logo and "GameSpy"
are the trademarks of GameSpy Industries, Ltd. The ratings icon is a trademark of the Interactive Digital Software Association. DreamCatcher design and mark are trademarks" Bf DreamCatcher Interactive, Inc. All other brands,
product names and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.All rights reserved.
REVIEWS »
Medievat Total War
A game of thrones: Shogun's heir has matured
by Kelly Wand
°
"RM
462 ВкЕмем - |
GOOD ' ATTACK
FIGHTING (LOSING BADLY)
NCERTAIN (WORRIED BY SO MANY
ASUALTIES)
VERY TIRED " а
f e
EY y
j 2
2 о 2 2
Fes all
GENRE Historical Strategy DEVELOPER The Creative Assembly
[www.totalwar.com] PUBLISHER Activision [Www.activision.com]
REQUIREMENTS Pentium Il 350, 128MB RAM MULTIPLAYER 2-8
Players; Internet, LAN ESRB Teen
лг
1 1 2 4
*
Medieval: Total War is an entertaining, thoroughly
Anglicized follow-up to 2000's well-regarded austere blood-
bath Shogun: Total War. Though markedly more soaked in
period detail and enhancements big and small, it's good for all
the same reasons as the original. What gives Medieval its zing
is how its paired modes of turn-based empire building and
realistically chaotic battle screens complement each other as
well as Lance Bass and an airless vacuum probably would
have in a more idealistic universe.
The designers have upped the ante by adding over a hun-
dred new classes of units; the number of separate gunpowder-
using troops alone would nicely satisfy the barracks of many
another real-time strategy game. Also heartily welcome is the
integration of castle siege warfare, complete with trebuchets
and catapults necessary for the demolition of gatehouses and
arrow towers that otherwise tear your men-at-arms to ribbons.
Few games have ever delivered the tactics-over-glitz satisfac-
tion of decimating vastly superior forces using terrain, morale,
and careful positioning of combined arms the way Medieval
does; patience and intelligence prevail over numbers every
time here, and that's solid design.
Graphically, though, despite big gains made since Shogun,
the detail on the individual units is scant to none and the move-
ment animations are herky-jerky at best, regardless of your res-
olution or what's under your hood. Things only get worse the
88 CGM | DECEMBER 2002
АКТ ЛЛ ТТ
larger the forces involved. Clashing
armies simply meld into a twitching
mishmash of colors, bouncing flags, and
indiscriminate screaming, especially on
Gamespy's Internet multiplayer, where
it's safe to say that the kinks just
haven't been worked out. Mid-game
crashes are common, which is even
more frustrating considering how long it
takes just to set one up (up to eight
players handpicking and upgrading six-
teen armies with the assigned florins available takes a while).
The game comes with only three stand-alone historical battles, all
involving England, and two are merely riffs on Braveheart. But the
number of historical campaigns, some of which require unlocking,
compensates big-time. They feature scenarios of Saladin, the 100
Years' War told from both perspectives, the Mongolian Golden Hordes,
and a bunch more. No commemoration, oddly, of the 1453 battle at
Constantinople that marks the deadline for the single-player campaign,
but the map editor makes filling such blanks a matter of moments.
The single player campaign is Medieval at its most engrossing. As in
Shogun, you administrate the expansion and infrastructure of an empire
chosen from among twelve factions such as the Danes or the Arabian
Almohads, all across what looks like a giant boardgame map of medieval
Europe resting on a weatherbeaten oaken table that evokes nostalgic
memories of old-school wargames like Kingmaker and Diplomacy. With
the occasional battle providing background chorus, the bulk of your time
is spent building watch towers, assassins, bishops et al., and sending
them out to harangue or charm your AI opponent factions.
The fun is in the wealth of near pointless but fascinating details,
and in the vagaries of fate. It’s possible, for example, to have nothing
going on but six princesses scouring the Siberian steppes for possible
suitors to forge a strategic alliance. Religion also plays a larger but
subtler role this time. Shogun featured two religious factions, the
Buddhists and the Christians, each of which allowed recruitment of a
different type of warrior unit (the Buddhist monks were semi-magical).
Here there are five religious factions, and their effects are purely politi-
cal. The Papacy, for example, can excommunicate a Catholic faction,
making them fair game for “crusades,” a legal excuse to march troops
through neutral lands and take them out militarily to acquire their
lands and wealth. The Islamic version is a jihad, which can only be
taken advantage of to reclaim invaded territories. Upgrading your
province’s church to a cathedral allows you to build Inquisitors, which
can be used to put enemy generals on trial for heresy and burned.
Fleets create trade routes and blockades and even fight. The victory
conditions include a “Glorious Achievements” option, the specifics
(and difficulty) of which vary from faction to faction.
With its rich in atmosphere and wealth of strategic options,
Medieval is compelling for long hours into the night in the way of all
games we'll think back on smiling in our old age. The more you play
it, the more you find.
I've heard of uphill battles but
this is ridiculous. Clashing
armies too often meld into a
twitching mishmash of colors.
bouncing flags. and indiscrimi-
nate screaming.
UPSIDE Lots of fun, rich in atmosphere and strategic options, capability for
battles involving more than ten thousand troops
DOWNSIDE Each of those troops adds ten bucks to the hardware require-
ments, post-WarCraft Ill movement animations already look dated,
spotty online stability
ЖЖЖЖ >
RATING
it's what's inside that counts.
сиге
With 350 new cards, the Onslaught™ expansion is the perfect entry into
the Magic: The Gathering“ Online game. And the new Morph mechanic
allows you to keep a poker face as your opponents lose their heads.
That's because you play Morph cards face down. So they won't know
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free game download
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All trademarks are property of Wizards of the Coast, Inc. ©2002 Wizards.
Mafia
Grand Theft Edsel, capiche?
by Douglas L. Erickson
GENRE Angry Taxi Simulation
DEVELOPER Illusion Softworks
[www.illusionsoftworks.com] PUBLISHER
Take 2 [www.take2games.com]
REQUIREMENTS Pentium Ill 700, 128MB
RAM, 32MB 3D Accelerator
MULTIPLAYER None ESRB Mature
Where are the Keystone Kops when you
need 'em? >>> [Inset] Is it Valentine's
Day already?
There’s little doubt that Grand
Theft Auto III would become the
template for many games to follow,
but it comes a pleasant surprise
when one of the first “urban
sprawl” crimeland sims—Mafia
from Czech developers Illusion Softworks—not only manages to be a solid
genre entry, but also quite distinct in its own right. As an overall experience, it
pulls the would-be legitimate businessman in like few other games have ever
accomplished. Well-voiced cinemas, great camerawork, and solid dialogue
envelop the player in a world of classic New York (called “Lost Heaven” here)
gangland pulp, and the tight mission scripting makes sure that the extremely
linear story plays out minus the hitches that plague more open-ended games of
this variety.
The game’s strongest suit is the main story mode, which places you in the
role of fledgling Mafioso Thomas Angelo, a former taxi driver driven into the
clutches of “good guy” mobster Don Salieri due to a chance
encounter. Through the course of several missions, and aided
by the aforementioned cinematics, you watch Thomas grow
into a Made Man as he helps the Salieri family business wage
war against the rival Morello clan. As expected from a game
that takes its basic cues from GTA3, there is also a Free Mode,
which provides a set of basic objectives to accomplish in order
to accumulate cash for upgrades, as well as practice your mob-
ster skills. Complete the story mode and you'll unlock the
CGM | DECEMBER 2002
DOWNSIDE
RATING
Extreme Free Mode, a rather torturous test of vehicu-
lar skill with fifteen-plus “driving tests” the player
can participate in.
A great deal of the story portions will find you fer-
rying Tom and his cohorts from mission to mission,
which provides a smart opportunity for the urban
engine to strut its stuff. The gritty Depression-era
gangland facade is perfectly assembled and meticu-
lously crafted, featuring grungy storefronts and ram-
bling trolleys everywhere. It’s easy to get lost in the
ambience, with the melodic strains of well-composed
jazz riffs ringing in your ears and the orange hues of
a New York sunset streaming buy as you coast across
the Giulani Bridge in your rattling Bolt V8 Roadster.
The central theme is driving, and why not? The
game provides the player with a vast selection of
vehicles modeled after famous cars from that era,
each with their own distinct look and feel. On wheels
or on foot, the controls really shine, and a slick
weapon selection interface makes beat downs and
drive-by’s alike amazingly fluid and rewarding. One
gripe, however; the directional compass is pretty
vague, which necessitates having the map open while
you drive, which will cause quite a few accidents
until you learn the lay of Lost Heaven.
The biggest strike against Mafia, though, lies in its
inability to capitalize on the glorious urban sprawl it
attempts to portray. In the story mode, the missions
are so tightly scripted and linear that deviation from
the strict path will lead to failure. Why bother render-
ing a vast city to explore if none of the promise is real-
ized in the mission design? And in Free Mode, the lim-
itations are all too plain: playing taxi is lethargy-induc-
ing; random violence lacks the sense of escalation in
Grand Theft Auto, and despite the various objectives,
there really isn’t very much of interest to accomplish—
it’s all about collecting dough from cop-capping and
random crimes. It’s a gritty snowglobe of a thing, and
even the most violent of shakes can’t keep the novelty
from wearing off all too quickly. There’s no doubt that
Mafia is an urban sprawl engine first and foremost,
with the mission design’s lack of ambition unwilling
to test its inherent potential.
Like a young Michael Corleone, you can see the
strength in Illusion Softworks’ favored son, even as it
is held back by its weaknesses. Unlike so many other
games that put their engine first, though, Mafia is
still a fun, engaging game that provides an incredibly
immersive experience. In a hobby where elves and
space marines have become the hallmark of the
generic, it’s an offer that’s hard to refuse.
Visuals finer than Veronica Lake, cinematic work top-notch,
controls are tighter than a Sicilian family
Free play duller than an F. Scott Fitzgerald novel, population
Al glitchy, mission design stiffer than a Sinatra highball
Ж Ж Ж Ж
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92
America's Army: Operations
СУШИ x xx
GENRE Shooter DEVELOPER/PUBLISHER US
Army REQUIREMENTS Pentium Ill 766, 128MB
RAM, Internet connection MULTIPLAYER 2-20
Players; Internet ESRB Not Rated
Uncle Sam wants you! If you have honed
your reflexes to razor sharpness through
hours and hours of hardcore gaming and
have the kind of chiseled physique that
one can only achieve through a strict diet
of cheese doodles and Jolt cola, you could
be exactly what the Army is looking for.
The free, downloadable America’s Army:
Operations may be a recruiting tool in spir-
it, but in practice, it’s a realistic online
shooter. Before you can leap into action
blasting your fellow potential future enlis-
tees, you need to complete a series of
training missions, which act as a kind of
tutorial. Once you get through training,
you’re ready for action. A Gamespy pow-
ered server browser makes it very easy to
find games, and there are plenty of servers
The Thing
ото >>
GENRE Shape-shifting Action DEVELOPER
Computer Artworks PUBLISHER Black Label
Games REQUIREMENTS Pentium Il 400, 64MB
RAM MULTIPLAYER None ESRB Mature
The Thing is a sequel, of sorts, to John
Carpenter's creepy and underrated 1982
film (tagline: “Man is The Warmest Place
to Hide”). You’re the leader of a military
rescue team sent to an Antarctic research
outpost to investigate strange goings-on.
Since you’re taking orders from the guy
that plays Cigarette Smoking Man on The
X-Files, you know there’s going to be trou-
ble. Sure enough, trouble comes in the
form of an alien that likes to take the
shape of any living thing it bumps into
along the way.
Though gameplay-wise, it’s a fairly typi-
cal third-person action game, The Thing
features superb production values, a few
exciting action sequences, and delivers
CGM | DECEMBER 2002
to choose from, many of which are run by
the Army itself. The actual missions are
played in rounds, Counterstrike style, with
each of the two teams having different
objectives to meet for victory. Because this
is supposed to get you excited about the
good guys, each side sees their own troops
as the good ole US Army and the other
side as the nogoodniks through the wiz-
ardry of modern technology.
Once you get into the fray, realism is
the name of the game, and the result is a
very deliberate pacing. There are really
only four different weapons in the game,
and you can’t just run out with guns blaz-
ing and expect to do well. Strategy and
Welcome to basic training.
More proof that vomit makes or breaks a game.
Your teammates can't quite keep lunch down
when they stumble on some of the more grisly
Scenes.
tons of gore for its eight hours-or-so of
entertainment. Its main innovation—the
notion that in order to succeed you must
earn the trust of the members of your
team—is novel but underdeveloped. Each
character has different levels of trust and
fear, which in theory goes from soldiers
refusing orders to turning their guns on
you to vomiting in the presence of a partic-
ularly grisly scene or committing suicide.
But it’s practically a binary system: hand a
teamwork are at a premium.
For a free game it’s hard to say anything
bad about Operations. The graphics and
sounds are very sharp and aid the overall
feeling of realism. The engine is smooth
and responsive, though movement is slow
to the point of being restrictive. The maps
are varied and extremely detailed, and are
all carefully designed to emphasize the
techniques required for real world success,
which basically boils down to killing the
other guy without giving him a good
opportunity to kill you. If you’re looking
for a tactical online shooter, you certainly
can’t beat the price. —Adam Fleet
distrustful guy a weapon and some ammo
and he’s your friend; accidentally shoot
him and he gets (justifiably) angry and
distrustful. However, the interface for
directing your teammates is simple and
effective, and the soldier AI, particularly in
the combat sequences, is excellent.
Though the storyline is faithful to the
movie, there are occasional gaps in the narra-
tive. You often go from Point A to B without
knowing exactly how or why, and your
teammates are constantly coming and going
with little to no explanations about why
you’re leaving them behind. This lack of
camaraderie also makes the moments your
teammates turn into “Things” particularly
anticlimactic. The conversions are all canned;
your engineer never changes over when you
need him to open a door down the road.
Few games successfully pull off horror
and tension, and The Thing is no excep-
tion. Though certainly better than most
movie adaptations, it’s something of a
minor disappointment. You can see the
potential in its individual parts, but the
whole lacks flair. —Steve Bauman
“True Ally!
Aide De Camp 2 - p. АУ t
Panzer Campa
Tobruk 4 i
Smolensk *
Рар- es
gue É a at
IV VE
ti Va
ма
Te
VY
Amoral 2002
HPS Simulations
P.O. Box 3245
Santa Clara, CA 95055-3245
(408) 554 8381
REVIEWS »
94
Leave me ^ — |
no time for ЇШӨ Gonvers
So, um, Fritz... where's the girls camp?
Prisoner of War
EKEN x< xx
GENRE Sneaky Action DEVELOPER Wide Games
PUBLISHER Codemasters REQUIREMENTS
Pentium 500, 128MB RAM MULTIPLAYER None
ESRB Teen
Prisoner of War has one foot planted in
the camaraderie of The Great Escape and
the other in the “wacky Nazi” hilarity of
Hogan's Heroes. The gameplay isn't Medal
of Honor action; it's more akin to the care-
ful and methodic sneakiness of Thief. Your
foes are barbed wire, bad timing, machine
gun towers, time, and Nazis who tote dan-
gerous flashlights. Getting caught is bad,
but it's more frustrating than deadly.
You portray the intrepid and gung-ho
Captain Lewis Stone, who's shot down
over German POW camps. He lands safely
but gets caught right away and placed in a
holding camp. Can he get out in time? The
two AI controlled prisoners he meets also
tried to escape, but they quit in frustration,
and you may share their fate. This is a
demanding, methodic, and puzzle-oriented
game. Failing means starting over from a
save point or losing a valuable day.
Success keeps you going, because each
task feels new and fresh, and the pacing is
excellent.
The problem lies with the perspective; the
camera system constantly gets in the way.
CGM | DECEMBER 2002
The AI is above average and well suited for
the game, but sometimes it's just plain
dumb. Guards get stuck on corners or forget
about you entirely after a prolonged chase,
and fellow prisoners just sort of stand
around doing nothing most of the time. It
gives the game a feeling of lifelessness that
screams, "this is a puzzle" rather than "this
is a POW camp." At least the overall puzzles
are good, but a little more ambiance would
have sold the setting better.
Prisoner of War can be a frustrating
game, but those that stick with it will find
it more rewarding than flawed. Given all
the shooting games coming down the pike,
it's a refreshingly different take on WWII.
—Andrew S. Bub
Celtic Kings: Rage of War
EXIM « «x
GENRE Real-time Strategy DEVELOPER
Haemimont Games PUBLISHER Strategy First
REQUIREMENTS Pentium II 400, 64MB RAM
MULTIPLAYER 2-8 players; Internet, LAN
ESRB Everyone
Like the legendary hero of the Gauls so
prominently featured in the game’s premise,
Celtic Kings is a sort of digital Vercingetorix.
Aggressive in ambition and technically
strong, it falters under its own lack of refine-
ment and Roman-heeled polish.
It does offer a formidable force of tech-
nical accomplishments: battles that poten-
tially feature thousands of units; hero
development and unit leveling; a thought-
ful unit management interface; and an
expansive story-based campaign that plays
a lot like a real-time version of Heroes of
Might and Magic. In all these aspects, it is
devastatingly effective—with two clicks, 50
units can be bound to a hero. Heroes gain
levels and obtain magical devices, confer-
ring their strength to allied units. And the
adventure mode, which chronicles the
story of the vengeful Gaul warrior Larax,
makes up for its barely functional plot
with an empire’s worth of events, sub-
quests, and surprises.
Despite a fairly limited selection of sides
and units, the scope of the play renders
variety a non-issue. When you have an
army of 100 or more units, the scope tends
to extend beyond the largely tactical con-
sideration of unit type and more into the
strategic movement of entire forces (again,
facilitated by the elegant system of binding
troops to heroes).
However, all is not well in what will
become the state of France. Celtic Kings
manages to tarnish its crown with a slough
of irritating design oversights, the most
prominent being the ease in which a unit
or item can become obscured by a tree or
structure, leading to arbitrary selecting and
clicking. Unit feedback isn’t exactly as
friendly as it should be, either. And sieges?
Caesar may be able to calculate the range
of a catapult by sight alone, but lesser mor-
tals would rather have an indicator than
make blind guesses when attempting to
pound Stonehenge into so much gravel.
The engagement AI is weak, with serious
clumping and poor match-ups wounding
potentially elegant maneuvers. Lastly, the
art direction, while stunning in its basic
illustration quality, lacks any impact due to
the heavy saturation of a color palette best
described as “Quake-like.“
This mass of shifting brown and grey is actually
а bunch of angry “woman warriors," apparently
unafraid of Joan Rivers’ barbs about their
unfashionable steel attire.
Celtic Kings has a solid game hiding
under its dun-colored kilt, and one that
real-time aficionados might find a pleasant
alternative to the micromanagement antics
of WarCraft II or the generic fantasy uni-
verse of Warlords Battlecry 2. Fierce and
rough around the edges, developer
Haemimont's heroic effort is diminished
not because it lacks in innovation or
mechanics, but because people expect bar-
barian antics to be a bit more civilized.
— Douglas L. Erickson
ae
T è
E d MONTE сабо
4 cam
Т
—
DIGITAL (3)
REALITY „ЄЗ. ۸
V
©
All the
excitement
of the big
screen
comes to
` your PC.
©
First tactical strategy game to cover the Vietnam War
from 1965 to 1968, recreating actual US Army missions.
PLATOON Interactive Game (all object code, all other software components and certain audio visual components only). © 2002
Monte Cristo Multimedia. Monte Cristo and its logo are registered trademarks of Monte Cristo Multimedia. PLATOON Interactive
Game (certain audiovisual components). © 2002 Orion Pictures Corporation. PLATOON TM & © 1986 Orion Pictures Corporation. CONTENT RATED &Y
All rights reserved. All other trademarks and logos are property of their respective owners. Developed by Digital Reality. ESRB
REVIEWS »
96
Empire Earth:
The Art of Conquest
СШ x x
GENRE Strategy DEVELOPER Mad Doc
PUBLISHER Sierra REQUIREMENTS Empire
Earth MULTIPLAYER 2-8 Players; Internet, LAN
ESRB Teen
When designer Rick Goodman (Age of
Empires) set out to make the ultimate eon-
spanning real-time strategy game, he came
up with Empire Earth. The result was a
polished yet overwhelming mishmash of
old, borrowed, and brand new ideas,
many of them good enough to develop
quite a following amongst the hardest
hardcore fans. Now, Art of Conquest, the
first expansion pack, asks the question:
how do you expand a game so expansive
it turned off all but the most hardcore?
It answers that question by adding new
bonuses or units to existing civilizations, a
whole new epoch (bringing the total num-
ber of time frames to a daunting fifteen),
and three single-player campaigns. The
campaigns are interesting, if poorly writ-
ten and horribly voice acted, taking you
from the ancient world with the Romans
to WWII's Pacific Theater to the vast
reaches of space. It's a decent amount of
content, but the quality is suspect. Each
civilization gets a new bonus. The French
can camouflage, the Russians mine better,
and the US gets a marketplace. These are
nice and clever, and add a bit to the game
overall, forcing players to deal with the
new situations they create.
The campaigns begin in Rome where
you go from invasion to Cleopatra. It's
largely successful. The WWII campaign is
not. These missions are often too hard-
coded to let you innovate. Lastly, you get
to play a futuristic Asiatic super-power
CGM | DECEMBER 2002
Mechs stand tall in the swamps of the future. >>>
[lower tef] Roman conquest in progress, up close.
dealing with a rebellion. The exposition is
tiresome, and lines like, "They're just ter-
rorists!" and, "Look out! A suicide
bomber!" scream poor taste. Things get
more interesting when the campaign actu-
ally takes you into space but it never really
takes advantage of its setting. It essentially
replaces water textures with black starry
ones and makes island landmasses round
so it can call them "planets." Its best fea-
ture is a toggle that prevents rivals from
invading your little “island Earth" until
they reach the Space Epoch, which finally
gives you a way to play the game at a
more leisurely pace.
Overall, though, The Art of Conquest is
an artless expansion. Aside from some of
the new bonuses and the Space
map/Epoch, it really doesn’t add anything
worth its price tag. —Andrew S. Bub
Links 2003
EXC x xxx
GENRE Golf DEVELOPER/PUBLISHER Microsoft
REQUIREMENTS Pentium 500, 64 MB RAM
MULTIPLAYER 2-4 players; Internet, LAN
ESRB Everyone
The hottest trend in
computer golf over the
last few years is the
ability to swing with the
mouse—the tired tri-
click method is dying a
slow and deserving
death. The venerable
Links franchise needed a
more contemporary
swing method in order
to attract new fans, and
with Links 2003, it's
here, and it's good.
Microsoft calls its new
swing interface, oddly
Golfers are now fully animated; they'll even show a little waggle.
enough, “Real Time Swing” (RTS). It’s
unforgiving on the harder levels of difficul-
ty and makes for a more challenging,
rewarding, and exciting game of golf.
RTS comes at a price. If you decide to
use this swing method—Powerstroke and
Tri-Click are still options—you cannot use
the game’s Dynamic Camera that follows
the ball in flight. You’re forced to watch
from the golfer’s perspective.
At least the golfers look good. As polyg-
onal ones replace the previous year’s digi-
tized bitmap golfers, this allows you to
view the player close up rather than from a
distance and also looks more realistic—the
golfer looks like part of the scenery rather
than a pasted image. The courses, all six of
them, also look fantastic and feature a lot
more detail than in previous versions. The
only issue is that the environments remain
static; unlike EA’s Tiger Woods, the trees
are motionless and the oceans frozen.
Multiplayer is decent enough, and play-
ing a tournament through e-mail is a
remarkable addition, but playing online
takes a lot of time. Once you’re used to
Headgate’s revolutionary ReadyGolf multi-
player format, first seen in Sierra’s PGA
2000, the old format just takes too long
when you have a complete foursome.
After a few years of treading water,
Links is finally back where it belongs, at
the upper level of PC golf simulations.
While RTS breathes needed life into the
series, the additions of a wonderful sea-
son/career mode complete with Q-School,
Semi-Pro, and Pro Tours, the ability to con-
vert old courses, a more user-friendly
course designer, and arguably the best
physics model in the genre help make
Links 2003 the most complete golf title on
the market. —William Abner
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98
GENRE Dirty Racing DEVELOPER Ratbag
PU ER Infogrames Entertainment
MENTS Pentium Il 450, 128МВ RAM
MULTIPLAYER 2-10 players; Internet, LAN
ESRB Everyone
REQU
Virtual Resort: Spring Break
Ж x
GENRE Location-sim DEVELOPER Deep Red
PUBLISHER Eidos REQUIREMENTS Pentium Il
450MHz, 128MB RAM MULTIPLAYER None
ESRB Teen
Spring Break has a lot in common with
Tropico. You manage a little tropical island
by plopping down buildings and adjusting
wages, all in the hopes of making every-
one happy while inflating your bank
account. The developer, Deep Red, turned
in a surprisingly sophisticated mass-market
game with Monopoly Tycoon, and at first
glance it appears they've succeeded at
recreating that success.
There's a lot to like about this little envi-
ronment-management game, known as
Beach Life in the U.K. The graphics are
sharp and the stars, your vacationers, are
exceptionally well treated. They have lots
of funny thoughts, scores of fantastic ani-
mations, and a few silly sound effects. It's
really a treat to watch them running
CGM | DECEMBER 2002
If it ain't broke, don't fix it. That's an
accurate description of Dirt Track Racing
2. Each game in the series from Ratbag
(which includes Sprint Cars and some
Australian-only games) has added different
cars to the mix but left the gameplay
engine alone, offering a satisfying blend of
arcade and simulation style play.
You find yourself behind the wheel of
Pro Stocks, Late Models and the newly
added Modifieds in this iteration. All the
basics are here including
convenient quick races
and the long term career
mode. Added from Sprint
Cars is the ability to cre-
ate and save your own
replays. Given the game-
friendly real-life event
schedules of heat, conso-
lation and feature races
which take only about
fifteen minutes to com-
plete, you can quickly
enjoy an entire event.
The AI infuses all
It's sideways or the highway
on dirt!
around your resort wind-surfing, pounding
down beers, getting into cat-fights, and
making out on the beach. Since watching
your people is so interesting, it's a shame
Tropico's super-up-close zoom level isn't
shared. The first half-dozen scenarios in the
linear campaign are a total cakewalk, but
you'll be having plenty of fun discovering
all the nifty things the vacationers can do.
Then it rains on your little beach get-
away. Most of the game is a breeze, but
the last several scenarios—and there are
modes with robust but variable challenge.
A career is still the best way to enjoy the
offline game and with lots of upgrades
available to each division of cars, as well
as many racing series to enter, you'll find
a lot to tinker with. Unfortunately, yellow
flags are still hokey. Restarts occur while
cars are colliding wherever the game
chooses. Flipping a car and continuing on
is common, ripping you out of the excel-
lent driving simulation when it happens.
Take the game online, and you'll find a
cozy group of players that are helpful and
excited about the game's cars. Since these
cars usually race for 10-30 laps in the real
world, the online experience easily repli-
cates a night at the track. It's a blast once
you spend enough time on setups to
become competitive. Dirt Track Racing 2
won't win any awards for originality, but a
nice graphical facelift and the addition of
the modifieds provides justification for
fans both old and new to snatch it up at its
budget price. —David J. Long
It wouldn't be Spring Break without
а wet T-shirt contest.
only twelve—are brutally hard.
The maps are all pre-generated,
so there's only twelve islands
to play on. This renders the
sandbox mode almost useless,
since you can only play each
location once you've unlocked
it in the linear campaign. You
can't rotate the map, only
buildings. Painstakingly bull-
dozing every shrub in the way
of the building you're trying to
place is annoying. The music is
totally mediocre, though at
least you can drop your own MP3s into the
music folder and make your own playlist.
After a couple of hours the charm wears
off, leaving you with a game that offers no
depth, only some boredom. More scenarios
in a non-linear campaign coupled with
random map generation would add
tremendously to the replay value and life
of a game that falls just shy of having what
it takes to hang around on your hard drive.
—Jason Cross
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Bethesda
" Lord of the Rings:
(eS NE Fellowship of the Ring
Universal
$4895
Sim 3
- $4995
j GA MENÉ _ ہے
ji ҮТ Г
t.
Star Wars Bounty Medal of Honor Harry Potter & Chamber Legend of Zelda:
Hunter PS2 Frontline Xbox of Secrets GCN Link to the Past GBA
Lucas Arts EA EA
Nintendo
PO Box 234 * Dept. 11410 * 2520 VT Rte. 100N * Rochester, VT 05767 * INT'L 802.767.3033 * FAX 802.767.3382 * US 800.699.GAME
Source Code 11412
YOU'RE BEING ATTACKED
(HALF PIRANHA/HALF
James, 20 let's face it. The
biology student only good Pirawolf is a dead
Denver Pirawolf. &
You need to have balance.
A good air combat squadron of
Vulturesharks, plus a battalion
of Hyenadragons, and finally,
Turtlelions for the amphibious
fights. "Snakes and snails with
scorpion tails." These are what
real men are made of.
Tommy, 23
computer programmer
zi San Francisco
Моав Microsoft
Comic Mischief gameJE Studios
BY AN ARMY OF PIRAWOLVES
WOLF )....
send in my Craig, 22
goons. Eagorillas and pro skateboarder/slacker
Providence
Rhinobulls.
These boys will punish
anything. If the French
had them, they wouldn't
have needed us in WWII.
END OF STORY, BIZATCH!
let's just say,
MAJOR PAIN IN THE...;)
A Tigebra is pretty wicked, or == -— аў Му;
а Tiganzee. Haven't tried a = 1 Р a.
tiger and a rhino yet.
IMPOSSIBLE
CREATURES:
Coming January 2003
My bet is it terminates with
extreme prejudice. I like that.
BRETT TODD
102
of the
mass appeal
How to develop a shooter for the modders... and why you probably shouldn't
What makes a shooter popular with the modding masses? It's the great
unanswerable question, isn't it? One that developers trying to follow in
the footsteps of John Carmack and his cronies at id Software have puz-
zled over since Quake all but single-handedly created the mod communi-
ty in 1996. Hit upon the right combination of 1s and 0s and you've
accomplished the programming equivalent of turning lead into gold.
And as any self-respecting alchemist will tell you, that isn’t an easy task.
A perfect illustration of that point is Monolith's No One Lives Forever, a
critical favorite that didn't go over as well with the gaming public.
Although its sales were respectable enough to warrant a sequel [see page
78], only a few users bothered to create maps or play the game extensively
online. Its send-up of 1960s spy movies that was equal parts James Bond
and Austin Powers, many innovative levels, and UNITY versus HARM
team multiplayer modes aroused little serious interest. It never got close to
the big leagues, populated by hits like Medal of Honor: Allied Assault,
Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Battlefield 1942, and the plethora of Half-Life
mods best exemplified these days by Counter-strike and Day of Defeat.
Why this should have been the case is hard to fathom, initially. A
game as good as No One Lives Forever should have sold extremely well
and inspired a legion of modders. In a vacuum, this probably would have
happened. But such a development was impossible. The Monolith game
was created with the Lithtech engine, a foreign language to modders used
to white bread staples like Quake III and Half-Life. If the game had been
based on the Quake III engine, as was the mega-selling Medal of Honor:
Allied Assault, you likely could have added another zero to the sales fig-
ures. Also, the subject matter was a little too quirky. Bell-bottom spy
satire was a great concept, but incorporating the Lara Croft Babe Factor
was poorly thought out. Monolith apparently didn't stop to think that
having a stunner like Cate Archer as the lead wouldn't matter when men
could only ogle her during the cutscenes. Which became a further prob-
lem as the between-mission banter was often stretched past the point of
frustration to allow the young male target audience ample opportunity to
gaze at Archer's ample cleavage.
Use this as an example and it becomes easier to figure out what it
takes to make a shooter that will appeal to the mod community at large.
You have to begin with the Quake III or Unreal engines. Anything else
and you're asking for trouble; Half-Life's too old and everything else is
off-beat. Your storyline mustn't stray too far from traditional themes.
Think military over monsters at present—even the sci-fi quasi-military
of Unreal Tournament. Being lighthearted isn't a good idea. Humor can
CGM | DECEMBER 2002
be well received, though it should be rendered
in a cynical or action-movie-hero style. Consider
Grand Theft Auto III, where “funny” involves
using prostitutes to regain health, as the optimal
expression of humor in gaming right now. Play
too fast and loose and you'll lose modders, who
don't want to waste time working for free on a
game that the paid developers considered to be a
joke. I know that's unfair to the developers at
Monolith, who painstakingly created sublimely
humorous scenes in every level of No One Lives
Forever, but let's be realistic—modders adopt
screen names like StoneKiller and Deathadder
for a reason.
As with anything creative, however, sticking to
a recipe is not a good thing. Even though mod-
ders would likely be happy with rehashes, the
community would grow stagnant without blasts
of fresh air from out-there stuff like No One Lives
Forever, Thief, and Deus Ex. That all three are
being continued as series by their respective pub-
lishers is a great thing for computer gaming as a
whole and mod-making in particular, although I
have to wonder about the future vitality. of the
genre when something as straightforward (but as
incredibly addictive, I've got to admit) as
Battlefield 1942 is the new standard-bearer. For
that reason, I hope that I'm able to write about
the mod community rallying around A Spy in
H.A.R.M.'s Way in future months, and that the
unanswerable question remains unanswered. e
E
©
©
Bewitching
Neverwinter Nights
The next big thing in Neverwinter Nights is
coming from the official developers.
Witchwork, a series of modules being
crafted by BioWare's Rob Bartel with the
assistance of a small group of testers. It
will introduce a new campaign setting far
removed from the Forgotten Realms. Little
is being revealed about this land, although
BioWare characterizes it as "darker in
tone" than traditional Dungeons & Dragons
worlds. Role-playing will take precedence
over hack-and-slash action in the plot, said
to revolve around the power of witches.
Custom death and conversation systems
are being created for the series, which will
also utilize the DM's Helper application
created by fans Joseph Hardesty and
Richard Scheepstra. The death system
appears to be similar to that featured in
Planescape: Torment, in that characters
must die a certain number of times to
unveil aspects of the story. Die too many
times, however, and your character winds
p “banished to a hell from which there is
no escape." The first installment of the
open-ended series, Witchwork I: The Fields
of Battle, is being geared for first-level
players and should be available by the
time this magazine hits newsstands.
NEVERWINTER NIGHTS
nwn.bioware.com
Mod Tools You Can't Refuse
Modders are already taking aim at Illusion
Softworks' sleeper hit Mafia. If you're
interested in getting a piece of the action,
download MassaSnygga's MafiaXTractor,
which lets you extract all of the data from
the game's dta files. This includes models,
textures, movies, and sounds. The program
MODS & ENDS
also patches the game so that it can read
extracted dta files, allowing edited sections
to be easily incorporated back into play.
Hunnenkónig's separate MafiaEditor pro-
gram gives users the ability to edit text in
dta files, which will come in handy for
those who want to design new missions.
MAFIA EPICENTER
mafia.gtacenter.com
MAFIA HEAVEN
www.mafiaheaven.cjb.net
MAFIA WORLD
www.3dap.com/mafia
MAFIACENTRAL.COM
www.mafiacentral.com
An Early Frost
If you've wrapped up your explorations in
Icewind Dale II, consider taking a fresh
look at the original. Two mini-mods that
enhance gameplay, add new monsters, and
even incorporate an additional quest or
two are now available for download.
Nathan Bunch's Winter's Bane features 17
new spells, 43 new items, a new character
with unique abilities and equipment, and a
number of rule tweaks. Project Auril
comes courtesy of the Chosen of Mystra
forum group and includes a new quest,
enhanced areas, and pumped-up monsters.
THE CHOSEN OF MYSTRA (PROJECT AURIL)
chosenofmystra.db-forge.com/com forums/yabbse
WINTER'S BANE (OFFICIAL SITE)
www.frontiernet.net/—nfbunch/wb/main.html
Are You Ready for
Some Football?
Having trouble telling a Dime from a 4-3
front in Madden NFL 2003? If so, you might
want to surf to Madden Guides, a web site
« AFTERLIFE
dedicated to analyzing all of the Xs and Os
in the Madden playbooks. In addition to
going over the basics—don't get into a play-
calling rut, learn to emphasize your team's
strengths—the site covers such intricacies as
how to beat cover defenses, how to best uti-
lize the halfback sweep/toss, and how to
defend in every possible situation. A
Definitions page sums up pigskin terminolo-
£y from Audible to Unsportsmanlike
Conduct, while another section covers fran-
chise options such as the salary cap. Some
aspects of the site were clearly written with
the console versions of Madden in mind,
and others had yet to be updated with infor-
mation specific to the current version of the
game as of my last visit, though all of the
information here can be applied to any edi-
tion of Madden, on any platform.
MADDEN GUIDES
www.maddenguides.com
BARGAIN BIN
Amerzone
Fans of Benoit Sokal's Syberia might want to
check out Amerzone, the first adventure by the
graphic novelist turned game designer.
Although a bit on the short side, beautiful visu-
als and a stylish, surreal setting make the
game worth every cent of the ten bucks that
Ubi Soft now asks for it. [Ubi Soft/1999]
А new character is. s of the Winters Bane additions to Icewind Dole > кодага поз hs в easy wh he olco ditor.» E s kein
rack of Madden's Xs ond Оз ot Madden Guides. 3 :
WWW.CGONLINE.COM
103
AFTERLIFE »
Tous in the Attic
Toys for Bob is revisiting the legendary Star Control
II, and plans on giving it away for free
by Brett Todd
Paul Reiche III has left his mark on the comput-
er gaming industry. Even though relative late-
comers to the party such as John Carmack and
Cliff Bleszinski get most of the accolades and
magazine covers, Reiche has quietly helped create
some of the most important titles in the history of
the business. Archon and Murder on the
Zinderneuf—early classics for the Commodore 64
and Atari 800 that helped put Electronic Arts on
the map—are just two of the many reasons why
gamers should be grateful that Reiche chose pro-
gramming over other careers.
"I'm not amazed that I'm still in this business
after 20 years, but I am delighted,” he says. “The
game business can be weird and fickle, but I can't
imagine finding a career more fun and stimulating,
except perhaps carving frightening sculptures in
Antarctic glacier cliffs with explosives, dynamite,
and lasers. So far, no
one has responded to
my inquiries about that
job, but I do keep send-
ing out my résumé.”
veteran gamers (e.g.: fan
fiction, and lots of it),
largely because it made
such a lasting impression.
Rich storytelling was com-
bined with expansive
gameplay to create a living
and breathing universe.
There you indulged your
Star Trek dreams and took
command of a powerful
starship constructed with
little-understood alien
technology. Your goal was
to use this advanced vessel
to battle the Ur-Quan, a species of warmon-
gering octopi bent on conquering Earth and
its pals in the Alliance of Free Stars. The
road to victory was an arduous one featur-
ing the exploration of strange new worlds,
contact with new life and new civilizations,
and boldly going into combat against
enemy spaceships. Role-playing and strate-
wanders
гасе, гаша
Reviving a classic
Which is something
of a blessing, both for
the wildlife at the bot-
tom of the world and
for gamers. If Reiche
had gone off to blow
up mountains of ice,
the local penguin pop- Ф m uu v р — "А gy went hand-in-hand with ап open-ended
ulation probably Part of the original's appeal was the captivating story. plot that allowed you to save the universe
wouldn’t have been in whatever way you preferred.
too impressed by the
racket. And gamers wouldn’t get another chance Everything new is old again
to play Star Control II: The Ur-Quan Masters, a The port will preserve all of the integrity of the original, as Toys for Bob
true groundbreaking game that retains a cult fol- doesn't plan on radically changing things. The only significant difference
lowing even though a decade has passed since it will be in regard to the official name, which because of legal issues with
was published by Accolade. Toys for Bob, the current rights holder, Infogrames, will be known simply as The Ur-Quan
design studio founded by Reiche and long-time Masters. Other than that, you should find everything right where you left
friend Fred Ford in 1990, is currently working on it. According to programmer Chris Nelson, it's being built from the
a free version of the game for Windows, all vari- source code for the 3DO version of the game, as much of the PC code has
eties of MacOS, Linux, and BeOS. Although been lost. Thankfully, enough of the PC code has survived for the design
incompatibilities between the old DOS-dependent team to pick and choose between the two versions at times, depending
code and post-Windows 95 operating systems on what works best.
have rendered the classic all but unplayable for a "Basically, we're using the 3DO code, and when we discover something
number of years now, that won't be the case for that the PC code does better, for our purposes, we swap that in," explains
much longer. Nelson, during a programming break. “At its most basic level, this project
Star Control II remains absurdly popular with is more or less a straight port of the 3DO game, with the main new fea-
104 CGM | DECEMBER 2002
ture being the ability for fans to modify and add on to the game."
Nelson approaches this job from a fan's perspective as well. Like so
many others, he fondly remembers Star Control II because he hadn't
played any game that even approached it previously. The conversations,
music, melee combat, story, and humor stuck with Nelson for a long
time after he'd moved on to other games. This is giving him added moti-
vation with his work on the port, as he hopes to spread the joy to a new
generation of gamers who missed out on this great experience the first
time around.
Changes will be left up to you
Fanatics will be rewarded well for their decade-long
devotion. Everything about the port will be left open so
that they can modify all aspects of the original game.
Toys for Bob is converting all of the files to common
formats, making it simple to alter conversations, add
plotlines, or even rewrite much of the game from
scratch. Every one of the text, voice, graphic, font,
music, sound effect, and script files will be there for the
editing. Seeing as the online Star Control community is
so enthusiastic, it shouldn't take long for mods and
total conversions to hit the web. Expect a
number of unofficial sequels to crop up within weeks
of the port's release.
"We're doing everything we can to make the
game as easy as possible for the fans to modify
and improve," says Nelson. “АП of the media is
being saved in open formats, such as pngs, mp3
or ogg, and wavs. We also plan to allow people
to drop in videos as cutscenes at key parts in
the game. Furthermore, we're releasing the
source code under the GNU GPL open source
license, which allows for even more interesting
modifications, such as Internet melee, or a ran-
domized galaxy generator. I'm sure the fans
will provide even more ideas that none of us
have even thought of yet."
What's a port
without a few
improvements?
One item from the
fans' wish list has
already come true.
The musical score—
one of the most
beloved features of
Star Control II—will
be presented in both
its original 1992 for-
mat and in a mod-
ernized remix. Riku Nuottajárvi, one of the musicians responsible for the
original soundtrack (you'll remember his hyperspace theme), has
reassembled nearly all of his coworkers from a decade ago and is spear-
heading the creation of new tunes based on the old ones. Dan Nicholson,
Aaron Grier, Eric Berge, Kevin Palivec, Alek Benedict, and Erol Otus
(whose artwork you might recall from the early days of TSR, where he
worked with Reiche on Dungeons & Dragons modules) have signed up to
help with the project. What they've come up with is apparently right in
line with what was featured in the original game. And since the port is
Early concept artwork of an Ur-Quan. Cute, isn't he?
< AFTERLIFE
designed so that you can switch from new to old
with the click of a mouse, even purists with the
sensibilities of Comic Book Guy won’t be able to
make a fuss.
An online multiplayer mode is also being con-
sidered. This option would closely resemble the
original’s supermelee game, where two players
constructed fleets and then battled it out for
galactic supremacy. Toys for Bob is also looking
at enhanced support for modern gamepads and
allowing users to develop multi-language plug-
ins so that those outside the English-speak-
ing world can enjoy the port.
Right now, however, many details
have yet to be finalized. What will be
included in the final product remains up
in the air, principally because Nelson has
been recruiting the assistance of fans to
make the Star Control II reissue bigger and
better. There is now a page at
SourceForge.net where the general public
can offer assistance with development.
Regular updates on the progress of the port can
also be found on the many Star Control fan web
sites. An official release date has yet to be
announced, although if all goes well, you should
be waging war against the slimy Ur-Quan before
the end of this year.
TOYS FOR BOB
www.toysforbob.com
SOURCEFORGE.NET: THE UR-QUAN MASTERS
SUMMARY
sourceforge.net/projects/sc2/
THE PAGES OF NOW AND FOREVER - ALL ABOUT
STAR CONTROL
www.classicgaming.com/starcontrol
MAGIC BOX TOYS FOR BOB FAN SITE
home.att.ne.jp/wave/rainbow/Toys for Bob
WWW.CGONLINE.COM
105
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Bio-Aware
I wanted to let your readers know about
an act of kindness I recently experienced,
thanks to the wonderful people at
BioWare. I work a few blocks away from
their office, and a couple months ago, my
mother suffered a very serious stroke that
left her permanently hospitalized. During
the first two weeks she was in intensive
care, I spent night and day at her bedside
and was unable to go to work. A good
friend of mine contacted a staff member at
BioWare to ask when Neverwinter Nights
was going to be released as he wanted to
pick up one of the first copies for me, hop-
ing it would help to get my mind off of my
family tragedy.
Well, the folks at BioWare went him one
better. My friend came by my workplace
and hand-delivered a copy of the game auto-
graphed by everyone in BioWare's office.
Needless to say, I was deeply touched.
In a time when customer service seems
to have dwindled, and big companies have
all but lost touch with the consumer,
BioWare stands out as an example of how
to do things right. Fantastic games created
by genuinely caring people.
Thank you again, BioWare, for brighten-
ing up a very dark time in my life.
Peter Bagan
Edmonton, Alberta
In other “why you should probably like BioWare”
news, in celebrating 100 days of availability for
Neverwinter Nights, the company teamed with its
publisher Atari, Creative Labs, Intel, NVIDIA, and
XFX in rewarding the game's community leaders
CGM | DECEMBER 2002
with some recognition and some cool hardware
gifts (Pentium 4s, video cards, etc.). Trés cool,
BioWare. —ed
Sinking Pirates
I'm very disappointed in you people.
Why would you publish a story like
"Pirate Sunk by Gaming Booty" [CGM 143]
that encourages criminal behavior? At least
you could have posted the picture (without
privacy fuzzies) in a full page as a WANT-
ED CRIMINAL poster. How can a person
that owns two machines with more hard-
ware, and more powerful than mine, state
he has, "little or no disposable income?"
Idiots like this is one of the reasons games
are costly and should be locked up, not
written about.
Next time you are hurting for an article,
do a spread on Barney the dinosaur with a
full fold out picture; at least it isn't pro-
moting illegal behavior. And if this article
is a joke, it is in very poor taste and
should never been considered.
John
We would never stoop so low as to do a story on
Barney. He's pure evil. —ed
Technically, Mr. No-name wasn't the one
who was cheated, but he does have a legit-
imate point: game developers are slacking
off, relying on a shiny box and outrageous
graphics to sell the game.
Just think if developers focused on the
making good games like in the old days! It
would be glory! We need a developer dedi-
cated to good gaming, not money.
BlackRage 9004
The guy is a hypocrite. Pirating causes the
price of games to rise, and quality is worse
because they do not have as big a budget
email us at editorecgonline.com
Satire: (n) A literary work in which human vice or folly is attacked through
irony, derision, or wit. Irony, sarcasm, or caustic wit used to attack or
expose folly, vice, or stupidity. Or alternately, it's an article about a pirate
who complains about the quality of his illegally acquired games. But before
we get into the letters commenting on our "Piracy" article in October, we
have an uplifting little story about a developer that went a bit above and
beyond the call of duty to show how much it cares about its fans...
as they should have. Maybe if he bought
games instead of just criticizing them, the
gameplay would be better.
Volkov
Harder than Hardcore
As I read Tom Chick's column from the
October issue of your magazine [*God
Mode is for Babies"], I realized I was his
idea of a hardcore gamer in many ways. I
always start a new game before I finish an
old one so I never end up finishing any of
them. I always invert my mouse in shoot-
ers, and I never use cheat codes.
I don't know whether that makes me a
hardcore gamer or not, but that's beside
the point. The point is, as a group hardcore
gamers are fine, but many go around mak-
ing fun of every new gamer they can find
just for fun, and this kind of hardcore
gamer is extremely annoying. They're usu-
ally the ones with no lives who always say
things like roXXors, nOOb, and things of
that nature. There's nothing wrong with
this in general, it's just really annoying
when people like you look down on every-
one else.
Don Egan
Just wanted to say that the smallest details
in articles like Tom Chick's Three Finger
Salute in the October issue don't go unno-
ticed. I still remember flipping through the
channels one time and finding World News
Tonight, where instantly I was met by a jolly
fat kid yelling “Sayonara, hooker!” as he
blew away a prostitute in Grand Theft Auto
III. Ah, good memories. Thanks, Mr. Chick.
Jon B.
That did make for a wonderful TV moment, didn't
it? Kind of like Fonzie jumping the shark in Happy
Days. —ed
Brain Games
After reading the article "This is Your
Brain on Games," [CGM 143], I became
very troubled. I'm 15-years old, and games
take up a large chunk of my time. But I
can think of several reasons this misguided
scientist's theory could be wrong. One,
there are no special features or radiations
in games that would cause a specific syn-
drome, and two, game designers play
games all the time, yet they can churn out
creative ideas (or perhaps it's the reason
they can't. Hmmm...).
Anyway, it would put my remaining
brain cells at ease if you could post an
update on this topic in a future issue of
your magazine when and if one becomes
available.
Е! Mariachi
To 3D or Not to 3D
I couldn't agree more with Phil
Steinmeyer's "Inside the Sausage Factory"
article about 3D games [“I Hate 3D"]. The
obsession with all things 3D could very
well be the death knell that this industry
has been dreading for so long. Developers
and gamers alike think that games have to
be 3D in order to be good. Nowhere is the
absurdity of that belief more evident than
in the area of real-time strategy games. Not
only is it unnecessary in this genre, it's
also detrimental—who has time to move
the camera when they are in the middle of
a massive battle?
The focus should be on crafting quality
games instead of creating an impressive 3D
engine. StarCraft has been a bestseller for
five years while countless 3D titles litter
the bargain bin.
Mark Longo
I couldn't agree more with Steinmeyer's
comments on 3D gaming. Why does every-
thing have to be 3D now, when sprites still
look so good. Take WarCraft III, for exam-
ple. It's just another 3D real-time strategy
game with a great storyline, but that's it. In
every other respect, Warlords Battlecry II is
the better game, but it's just not 3D. And in
my opinion, its 2D sprites still look a lot
better than WarCraft HIPs chunky graphics.
Until the technology is up to it, keep 3D in
the simulators and shooters, where it belongs.
St George the High Elf Paladin
Garage Rock
This is in response to a part of Steve
Bauman's Upífront editorial in the October
2002 issue [^I Love Everything"]. You praise
the garage rock movement and wonder
when a similar one will occur in the gaming
industry. In the spirit of your article, I love
it when a game magazine bemoans some-
thing they have a lot of control to change.
As the editor of a popular PC gaming
magazine, you are in the position to jump-
start the movement by giving some expo-
sure to the "smaller, quality" games that
are out there. Instead, when you find a
small game, you occasionally use the
opportunity to bash it in a review so that
you can show your audience how fair your
reviews are and how you don't give every
game a high score... only the ones that slip
some cash into your bank account. And
I'm not talking about putting in a little
blurb about the newest, greatest Half-Life
or Neverwinter Nights mod... І want to see
some effort put into exposing small great
standalone games.
Neon Noodle
Where are these great, little, standalone games
you speak of? Seriously, if they're out there, we
want to know about them. And where are the
small games we bash to show how "edgy" we
are? Are we supposed to recommend crap games
solely because they're "small"? That makes no
sense either. —ed
Slave to Britney
In Andrew Bub’s review of Britney’s Dance
Beat in the October issue, he said, “there
isn’t a dance mat controller for the PC and,
until now, there hasn’t been a dancing
game either.” I beg to differ. They offer the
game Pump it Up (basically the Korean
version of Dance Dance) and pads at
www.redoctane.com.
More resources for playing DDR-type
games for the PC are available at
ddr.blackbird.nu/gettingstarted.html
Sean Duggan
Thanks for the info, though we're somewhat dis-
turbed that someone actually read our review of
Britney's Dance Beat. —ed
Resisting Resistance
Whoever reviewed Operation Flashpoint:
Resistance in your October issue [that
would be Tom Chick —ed] hasn't learned
much from the original version. In my
opinion, it's a must-have for any fan of the
series. It’s way better than the original,
both in graphics and tactical options. It's
also more immersive.
Wasakero
It's Magic... the Gathering
I found your review of Magic the Gathering
Online [CGM 143] very nice and compli-
mentary, but I fear you forgot to mention
one very important thing. Whenever you
collect a full set of cards, you can redeem
them for real life cards. I mention this
because readers might be afraid they will
never see a return on the investment.
Richard Dow
Random Incoherence
Damn you, Ed, your warning about nose
vomit [Rebound, CGM 143] induced nose
vomit.
Greenbarron
I need a hug... but not from Steve Bauman,
cuz, you know, that’d be really awkward
and stuff.
Fred Cordes
Will someone please give Fred a very masculine,
non-sexual, hug? —ed
ERRATA
We got the name of Panther Games first title incor-
rect in our review of Airborne Assault. It was Fire
Brigade, not Red Brigade. We regret the mistake.
ADVERTISER INDEX
Activision [www.activision.com]
Bethesda [www.bethsoft.com]
CDV [www.cdv.de]
Chips & Bits [www.chipsbits.com]
Creative Labs [www.creative.com]
Disney Interactive [www.disney.com]
Dreamcatcher [www.dreamatchergames.com] ....... 61, 87
Earthlink [www.earthlink.net]
Electronic Arts [www.ea.com]
Fox Interactive [www.foxinteractive.com]
Funcom [www.funcom.com] ................. 49, 51, 53
HPS [www.hpssims.com]
iGames [www.igames.com]
Infogrames [www.infogrames.com]
Intel [www.intel.com]
Jaleco [www.jaleco.com] .................... 44, 45, 47
Microsoft [www.microsoft.com] 8-9, 75, 100-101
Sierra [www.sierra.com] ...................... 27, 111
Simon & Schuster [www.mysimon.com]
Sony [station.sony.com]
Strategy First [www.strategyfirst.com] 14-15, 81, 95, 106-107
Vivendi Universal [www.vivendi.com] 116-117
Westwood Studios [www.westwood.com]
Wizards of the Coast [www.wizards.com]
WWW.CGONLINE.COM
109
110
ode on а franchise burn
Attempting to transcend the constraints of a medium
What's in a name? That which we call Dude, Where's My Car?
By any other name would smell as < cough > sweet.
So Men-in-Black-the-game would, were it not Men-in-Black called,
Retain that slick hilarity which it owes
Without that title.
Right? Not necessarily.
A few years ago, I talked about the fate of games based on the own-
ership of (or the cleverly-attained rights to the use of) various film or
television properties, and bemoaned the fact that rarely did we see
anyone “get it right." I hypothesized that publishers with a hot
license gave short shrift to the development side of the project,
assuming that in order to profit or break even, they only needed to
sell the name. After all, LucasArts has made so many bad Star Wars
games that you have to wonder.... So as I was wondering (which
only happens when certain planets are in alignment or when I’m
performing cerebral activities like scouring the bathroom), it
occurred to me that the explanation about who or what is at fault
when these initially tantalizing products simply don't work is a
whole lot simpler than I had imagined. You can attribute it to this:
you can't mix apples and oranges. Please do quote me.
Designers have been trying to build compelling interactive
gamestories since there have been story-based games. The
dinosaur...ahem...the veteran game designer Chris Crawford has
written a billion rather didactic but interesting articles that explore
the concept of "Interactive Storytelling" (although he eschews that
phrase). *One of the points of confusion that I often encounter in
talking about interactivity with writers is their confusion of non-lin-
earity with interactivity," says Crawford. "They recognize that con-
ventional stories are linear, and interactivity isn't like a conventional
story, and at this point in their thinking they insert the concept of
non-linearity. The thinking seems to be that, if they could only
design a ‘nonlinear story’, whatever that might be, then they've
attained interactivity, or something worthwhile." Epic's Unreal
designer Cliff Bleszinski, wunderkind to Crawford's elder-wunder,
puts it more simply. He says, "It's hard to make a game."
Holders of these golden licenses have little leeway in their
attempts to build stories in a ground-up or top-down fashion. Too
much content and presupposition already exists, be it in a novel,
film, television show, or any other non-interactive medium.
Simon Price, an analyst for International Development Group said,
“А licensed game still has to be a good game to sell well, but not
necessarily as good a game as a nonlicensed game. The Hollywood
license will carry some of the heavy lifting for the game.” Well cer-
tainly it will, but until someone figures out how to really translate
linear prose, film, and television into interactive media (and no one
CGM | DECEMBER 2002
has so far), we'll still come up short.
So you see, I'm fairly skeptical about the
upcoming Tron, The Matrix, and the Lord
of the Rings and Harry Potter sequels. And
it seems that the inverse is true as well.
Check out this filmography: Super Mario
Brothers (1993), Double Dragon (1993),
Street Fighter (1994), Mortal Kombat and
Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1995), Wing
Commander (1999), Battle Arena
Toshinden (1997), Samurai Showdown
(1995), Fatal Fury and Fatal Fury 2 (1994-
95), Final Fantasy: Legend of the Crystals
(1994), Tekken (1998), Lara Croft: Tomb
Raider (2001), Final Fantasy, The Spirits
Within (2001), and more! Almost all
would agree that these so-called technolu-
dic films lack the meat found in their
videogame counterparts. There simply isn't
enough to engage us, because the games
require something from us that films sim-
ply do not: input. Remember when Clue-
the-movie tried to engage audiences into
“voting” about which of the three endings
the cinema should play during a given
showing? Woohoo, interactivity! Not. And
before I begin to drag Marshall McLuhen
into this, Га better stop...
Each of the media that we are faced
with on a day-to-day basis has a different
requirement at its core. And that's OK. But
for those who still think that they may be
able to harness the true essence of any one
of them during and after its translation to
another—and there will be those who will
still try—good luck. At any rate, I don't
think we'll be seeing Anna Karenina 3D,
Of Mice and Men and ‘Mechs, or The
Brothers Karamazov Online anytime soon.
Thank goodness. e
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PHIL STEINMEYER
112
come on in, the wate]
(And you don't even have to quit your day ob
So you just plunked down your hard-earned cash on Turnip Tycoon
and discovered the game sucks. “They’ve got the growing seasons all
wrong, and they definitely need to add the ability to grow rutabagas,
too,” you say to yourself. Rather than just nursing your wounds and
hoping that Sim Swine Farm will be better, consider moving to the
next level and actually participating in the game industry. There are
numerous ways to have an impact on the game industry, and you
don’t even have to get a job as a minimum wage tester of Pokemon
Purple to take part.
The simplest way to participate is via web forums. They let you
read a broad variety of opinions about specific games and industry
trends, and you can share your own pearls of wisdom quite easily,
too. They offer the easiest and most direct link between game devel-
opers and game players, and most major forums have several game
industry participants, plus a larger number who lurk without posting.
Your possible impact on the industry from posting is three-fold.
First, forum participants help steer other gamers away from bad
games and toward good ones. They help create word-of-mouth buzz
for the industry in the same way the office water cooler does for
movies and music.
Second, every major game developer regularly reads the forums
concerning their own games. Forum feedback helps developers prior-
itize bug fixes and new features, and can even influence which
games get sequels. We chose to do Railroad Tycoon II in part because
the original Railroad Tycoon was still legendary in the forums five
years after its original release.
Finally, game developers sometimes strike up on-line conversa-
tions with posters that may lead to the poster getting his or her first
chance to do industry work. My company PopTop has used several
freelancers who we discovered through forums and/or fan sites, and
many other game developers have, too. Within the last 30 days, I've
read forums for our own games at www.cafetropico.com and
www.heavengames.com, and I’ve also read more generalized indus-
try forums at www.gonegold.com, www.bluesnews.com, www.quar-
tertothree.com, and yes, even www.fatbabies.com.
Posting in a forum takes five minutes. If you're willing to invest
five hours, consider making a map or level for your favorite game.
Strategy games in particular typically come with easy to use level
editors. Start by looking at some of the maps that came with the
game. For your first attempt, don't try to make a ultra-all-encompass-
ing megamap—you’d never finish it and it would suck if you did.
Start with a small one-on-one map, then have a friend or two
playtest it, use that feedback to make tweaks, and upload it to a fan
site. After you've made a couple, start tackling larger, more complex
ones, and if the game has one, tinker with the event editor or script-
ing language. At the very least, you'll gain a deeper appreciation for
the complexities of designing and balancing levels. If you're lucky,
CGM | DECEMBER 2002
tT
7а
the game's developer may even рау yot
include your level in a future expansion —
pack or gold edition. PopTop paid for,
included, over 40 user-made maps in
Railroad Tycoon II Platinum. ;
If you're willing to move from a five
hour investment to a 50-hour one, cons
er joining the mod community. Mods
range from very simple graphics and
weapons tweaks that take only a week or
two to make, up to virtual re-writes of the
original game taking a year or more.
Again, study existing mods and start with
something simple. Use fan sites and
forums to hook up with other mod-mak-
ers. If you do come up with a solid mod,
you can usually leverage that to gain an
entry-level job in the industry.
Finally, if you can spare three or four
days and the price of a plane ticket, consider
volunteering at the annual Game
Developer's Conference. The next one is in
San Jose in early March, 2003. A full confer-
ence pass costs several hundred dollars, but
by volunteering for a day, you can also
attend a day for free. The conference has
dozens of seminars and roundtables on
every possible industry-related subject, and
it's a great chance to make contacts and
meet industry heavyweights. There's also an
industry job fair there, with dozens of com-
panies recruiting for all positions. Check out
www.gdconf.com for more info. e
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TERACTIVE GAMK DIMENSION:
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stats increáse E WE It's thé Bej ropolis of Neocron. Fightgn/he chaotic world along-
f. vorago different maps ^ = side thouSands Ófco ine players against hideous paonsters and dreadful
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GenTank, Private Eye, or Spy.
e A prattically unlimited number of weapon
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In order to survive the jungle of crime and corruption, you will have to increase your
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cdv ) © 2002 CDV Software Entertainment USA ee
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The content of this game may change due
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EL ha ЕБ. lute
battlefield 2005
Reality has left the building
I'm in an airplane and I'm banking hard to the left. I’m using my
mouse. I have to lift it up and move it in short sharp sweeps, as if I
were brushing dirt off the mouse pad. This isn't so far removed from
playing the original Red Baron with a keyboard, because back then I
didn't have a joystick. Now I just can't be bothered to set it up, since
I'm not going to be here long.
This plane might look like a P-51 Mustang, but it's really a one-
man troop transport with a Mustang skin. I'm going to jump out as
soon as get over a spawn point, opening my parachute right before I
hit the ground. My parachute is the sort of thing a superhero would
wear, kind of like the special suit that guy wore in MDK to make the
jumping puzzles easier.
I had to race to get this plane because there were about six of us
waiting for it. You'd think everyone would defer to me, since my
online name is Billy Mitchell. Maybe they don't know Brigadier
General Billy Mitchell was an early champion of air power. He's
probably spinning in his grave at me jumping from a fighter instead
of wasting my time riding in one of those boats where nine times out
of the ten the driver doesn't even know how to open the front door. I
don't think this is what Mitchell had in mind when he argued that
airplanes made navies obsolete, but he had the right idea.
44 There's no room for realism in computer
games, which have succumbed to the
broad appeal of whimsy and pacing. PP
I used to be a wargamer and a flight simmer. I used to count
hexes and look up numbers on hit result tables. I used to know
when a stall was coming and that I should apply opposite rudder
during a spin. I used to know the front armor value of an M4A1
Sherman vs. the penetration value of a Tiger’s 88mm gun. Now I
crouch behind tanks with my magic wrench. If I’m crouched behind
a Sherman tank and a bunch of newbies are plinking at it with their
panzerschrecks, my magic wrench can fix the tank faster than they
can chip away its front armor. It’s like a real-time strategy game
where a bunch of peasants can repair your town center faster than
the other guy’s archers can shave down its hit points.
The year is 1942. I know this from the title of Battlefield 1942. l'm an
American fighting in the bocage, something that didn't really happen in
1942, unless it was North African bocage. But no one cares about real-
ism anymore. Ever since Panzer General, and especially Saving Private
Ryan, World War П is just source material, a
licensed property that's gone over to public
domain. Omaha Beach is just a map and
swastikas are in poor taste.
Unlike wargames and flight sims, you
never have a problem finding opponents,
although their average mental age is fif-
teen. And a half, on a good server. It's a
blasé new world, carefree and easy. You
don't have a flight model, you'll never
have to land because it's easier to just
jump out, and you can use the B-17 asa
tactical support bomber, tracing lazy eights
in the sky over a small patch of ground,
using the ball turret to strafe the Germans
thirty years before the AC-130 Spectre gun-
ship was even a gleam in Lockheed's eye.
There's no room for realism in computer
games, which have succumbed to the
broad appeal of whimsy and pacing. War
is now long stretches of sheer terror punc-
tuated by moments of boredom as the map
loads. Computer games live in the domain
of the unreal with snot guns and monster
kills, where most gamers would notice
whether Bleszinski's name was misspelled
but wouldn't know Grigsby from Grisby,
Tiller from Tiler, or Koger from Kroger. TK
isn't a developer, he's the guy you kick
from your server.
But that's okay. I'm on board for all this
for now. I'm having fun and that's all that
matters, right? Now that America has
worked out her Vietnam issues, that war is
fair game for ValuSoft shooters and
Platoon adaptations. So NovaLogic is skip-
ping ahead to the modern day source
material, doing the Mogadishu stomp with
Black Hawk Down and the Afghanistan
tour with Delta Force: Task Force Dagger.
This is cutting edge, ultra topical, death-
match action with CNN immediacy.
Headshots and Taliban.
Okay, here's where I get out. I would
say I’m punching Elvis, but no one under-
stands Sierra Hotel talk anymore. So I'll
just say "Geronimo!" and see you some-
where between Saigon and Kabul. e
Computer Games Magazine (ISSN 0955-4424) is published monthly by Strategy Plus, Inc. Subscription rate is $19.97 for a one year
subscription, $31.97 Canada. Periodical postage paid at Richmond, VT 05477 and additional mailing offices. Produced in U.S.A.
Postmaster: Send address changes to Computer Games, PO Box 1965, Marion, OH 43306.
114 CGM | DECEMBER 2002
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